Brussels boosts digital sovereignty with seven new AI gigafactories

The European Commission has launched a call to establish up to seven artificial intelligence (AI) gigafactories in various countries of the European Union, a project aimed at expanding the bloc's computing capacity and strengthening its technological autonomy at a time of increasing international competition in this field.

The initiative will have up to 10 billion euros of public funding, jointly provided by the EU and participating member states, with the aim of mobilizing at least 20 billion euros of private investment, which would raise the total investment volume above 30 billion euros.

The future facilities will be dedicated to providing computing capacity for the training, inference, and tuning of advanced AI models. The infrastructure will be available to startups, growth-stage emerging companies, SMEs, large companies, universities, and public administrations.

The gigafactories will combine specialized AI processors, software platforms, cloud services, high-speed networks, and energy-efficient data centers. According to the Commission, these facilities will complement the existing European network of 19 AI factories within the EuroHPC program.

The call is open to consortium applications or special purpose entities that bring together companies, public entities, investors, and other partners. Projects can be developed in a single member state or distributed across several countries through distributed infrastructures.

The call will remain open until the upcoming November 12. Subsequently, the resolution is expected at the beginning of next year, and the construction of the facilities could begin throughout 2027. Brussels expects the gigafactories to become operational within a maximum period of 18 months from the signing of the contracts.

The program includes two support modalities. The first will allow financing of up to four projects with a maximum of 500 million euros of European funds per facility, distributed in two phases. The second will finance up to three larger-scale projects, which can receive up to 1 billion euros each also in two stages. In both cases, the participating member states must provide funding equivalent to that of the European Union.

Consortia will be able to acquire the necessary hardware from European manufacturers or countries considered allied by the EU.

Additionally, the Commission has signed letters of intent with U.S. companies AMD, NVIDIA, and Qualcomm to ensure the supply of processors and other components necessary for the future facilities.

Brussels also plans to reserve part of these acquisitions for European startups and tech companies to strengthen the continent's digital supply chain.

"The opening of the call for AI gigafactories represents a milestone in our ambitions to make Europe the continent of artificial intelligence. Access to massive computing capacity is a strategic necessity for Europe as AI development accelerates. I am pleased to see member states, industry, and the Commission collaborating on these facilities, which are key to our technological sovereignty," said Henna Virkkunen, Executive Vice President of the European Commission for Technological Sovereignty, Security, and Democracy, in a statement.

Beyond the increase in computing capacity, the initiative reflects the community's strategy of digital sovereignty, aimed at reducing Europe's dependence on external technological infrastructures.

Although the EU will continue to rely on U.S. providers for part of the hardware, the goal is for the training and deployment of advanced AI models to be carried out on infrastructures located in Europe and subject to community regulations on data protection, security, and AI governance.