The European Union is accelerating its efforts to strengthen its technological sovereignty in the artificial intelligence sector.
As part of this strategy, the European Commission has launched a call for proposals for the development of seven new AI Gigafactories: large-scale data centres designed to support the training, inference and optimisation of advanced artificial intelligence models.
The facilities will complement the 19 AI Factories already active or under development across Europe. The initiative is expected to attract a total investment of approximately €30 billion, combining public funding with significant private-sector contributions.
Seven New AI Data Centres in Europe
AI Gigafactories will be considerably larger than the existing AI Factories.
According to the European Commission’s plans, four medium-sized AI Gigafactories and three large-scale facilities will be built and operated by seven selected consortia.
Medium-sized facilities will host up to 75,000 advanced AI chips, while the largest Gigafactories could accommodate as many as 100,000 chips.
This infrastructure will significantly increase Europe’s computing capacity and provide the resources required to train and operate increasingly complex AI models.
Consortia interested in participating must submit their proposals by 12 November 2026.
The selected projects will receive approximately €4 billion in public funding for the four medium-sized facilities and €6 billion for the three larger Gigafactories.
Private investment is expected to contribute at least an additional €20 billion, bringing the overall value of the initiative to around €30 billion.
Construction Expected to Begin in 2027
The European Commission is expected to select the winning consortia in early 2027.
Once the contracts have been signed, construction work will begin. The seven AI Gigafactories are expected to become operational within 18 months of contract signature.
The ambitious timetable reflects the strategic importance of computing capacity in the global development of artificial intelligence.
Advanced AI models require enormous computational resources during both the training and inference phases. Access to these resources has therefore become an important economic, industrial and geopolitical asset.
By developing large-scale computing infrastructure within Europe, the EU aims to provide European organisations with access to advanced AI resources without relying exclusively on non-European cloud providers.
Computing Resources for Startups, Companies and Universities
The additional computing capacity will be made available to a wide range of users, including startups, small and medium-sized enterprises, industrial companies, universities, research centres and public authorities.
The Gigafactories will support activities such as:
- training advanced artificial intelligence models;
- running large-scale AI inference workloads;
- fine-tuning and optimising existing models;
- developing specialised AI systems for industrial and scientific applications;
- testing AI solutions in secure European environments.
Access to high-performance computing infrastructure is particularly important for startups and SMEs.
The cost of purchasing or renting thousands of advanced AI processors is often beyond the reach of smaller organisations. The new infrastructure could therefore help reduce the competitive gap between European companies and the world’s largest technology groups.
Reducing Dependence on US Technology Companies
One of the main objectives of the programme is to reduce Europe’s dependence on US companies that currently dominate the artificial intelligence and cloud computing markets.
Many of the most widely used AI models, cloud platforms and computing services are controlled by American technology corporations.
This dependence raises strategic concerns relating to data protection, cybersecurity, industrial competitiveness and control over critical digital infrastructure.
The development of AI Gigafactories could provide European companies and public institutions with a computing ecosystem governed by European rules, security requirements and data-protection standards.
However, the programme will not make Europe completely independent from foreign technology.
The European Union currently lacks the industrial capacity to manufacture the most advanced AI processors in the quantities required by these facilities.
For this reason, letters of intent have been signed with AMD, NVIDIA and Qualcomm to help guarantee the selected consortia access to the necessary hardware.
The initiative should therefore be interpreted as an effort to achieve greater strategic autonomy rather than complete technological independence.
Europe could gain greater control over infrastructure, data governance and the allocation of computing resources, while remaining dependent on non-European semiconductor manufacturers for advanced AI chips.
A Strategic Investment in Europe’s AI Future
The development of seven AI Gigafactories represents one of the European Union’s most ambitious investments in artificial intelligence infrastructure.
The project could significantly increase Europe’s ability to develop competitive AI models, support scientific research and accelerate the digital transformation of European industries.
Its success, however, will not depend exclusively on the number of processors installed.
The availability of electricity, access to specialised technical skills, efficient governance, environmental sustainability and fair access to computing resources will also be crucial.
If these challenges are addressed effectively, the AI Gigafactories could become a central pillar of Europe’s artificial intelligence ecosystem and strengthen the continent’s role in the global AI market.
