The European Commission has opened a call for tenders to set up up to seven “AI Gigafactories” across Europe, with the scheme backed by up to €10 billion in EU and national funding.
The facilities are expected to unlock at least €20 billion in private investment and expand Europe’s computing capacity for artificial intelligence, the Commission informed on Thursday.
They are intended to provide infrastructure that organisations can use to train and run AI systems, including “inference” — using a trained model to generate outputs — and “fine-tuning”, which adapts an existing model to specific tasks.
Each Gigafactory is set to combine advanced AI processors, software and cloud technology, high-speed connectivity and energy-efficient data centres.
The new sites are planned to operate alongside a network of 19 existing “AI Factories.”
Applications are open to consortia or Special Purpose Vehicles — project companies created for a specific purpose — bringing together firms, public bodies, investors and other partners.
Projects can be based in a single member state across one or more locations, or spread across several countries through distributed computing facilities.
Funding, procurement and timetable
Compute access time from the selected Gigafactories will be jointly procured by the European High Performance Computing Joint Undertaking (EuroHPC JU) and participating member states, the Commission said.
Eighteen member states have signed the joint procurement agreement with EuroHPC JU: Croatia, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain and Sweden.
The tender is split into two lots across two development phases, with up to four projects supported under the first lot and up to three under the second.
Under lot one, projects can receive up to €100 million in EU funding in phase one and up to an additional €400 million in phase two; under lot two, projects can receive up to €200 million in phase one and up to an additional €800 million in phase two.
The Commission said it has signed three letters of intent with US hardware companies AMD, NVIDIA and Qualcomm, following an EU–US trade deal, to ensure consortia have access to necessary hardware.
The call closes on 12 November 2026, with award decisions expected by early 2027 after an evaluation managed by EuroHPC JU.
Contracts are due to be signed to allow construction to start in 2027, and selected Gigafactories are expected to begin operations within a maximum of 18 months after the signature.
