The EU has launched a call for tenders to establish up to seven AI Gigafactories across Europe, as part of a latest push to accelerate Europe’s technological sovereignty and ambition of becoming the AI Continent.
Led by industry and supported by up to €10 billion in EU and national funding, the initiative is expected to unlock at least €20 billion in private investment across the Union. It will expand Europe’s AI computing capacity and give start-ups, scale-ups, small and medium-sized enterprises, industry, academia and public authorities access to infrastructure for training, inference and fine-tuning advanced frontier AI models.
“The opening of the AI Gigafactories call represents a milestone in our AI Continent ambitions”, said EC executive vice-president Henna Virkkunen: “Access to the raw scale of computing power within AI Gigafactories is a strategic necessity for Europe as AI development accelerates.”
The AI Gigafactories will combine advanced AI processors, software and cloud technology stacks, high-speed connectivity and energy-efficient data centres. Together with Europe’s network of 19 AI Factories, they will strengthen Europe’s technological leadership, resilience and strategic autonomy.
The initiative will ensure that Europe can develop advanced AI on its own infrastructure, in line with EU rules and values. AI technologies developed in the AI Gigafactories will follow EU standards on data protection, safety, security and ethics.
Who can apply
Consortia or Special Purpose Vehicles bringing together companies, public entities, investors and other partners can apply.
The AI Gigafactories may be established in a single Member State, either on one site or across several locations. They may also include cross-border developments in several Member States through distributed AI computing facilities.
Proposals will undergo a competitive evaluation to select the successful projects.
The call closes on 12 November 2026.
Following an evaluation process managed by the EuroHPC JU, award decisions are expected by early 2027. The necessary framework and specific contracts will then be signed to allow construction to begin in 2027.
Selected AI Gigafactories are expected to begin operations within a maximum of 18 months from the signature.
