The European Commission on 30 July launched a call for tenders to establish up to seven AI Gigafactories across the Union — a flagship push to expand Europe's computing capacity and pursue its 'AI Continent' ambition.
Led by industry and supported by up to €10 billion in combined EU and national funding, the initiative is expected to unlock at least €20 billion in private investment. The facilities will combine advanced AI processors, software and cloud technology stacks, high-speed connectivity and energy-efficient data centres, giving start-ups, SMEs, academia and public authorities access to infrastructure for training, inference and fine-tuning of frontier AI models. Together with the existing network of 19 AI Factories, they are meant to strengthen Europe's technological leadership, resilience and strategic autonomy.
Eighteen member states have signed a joint procurement agreement with the European High Performance Computing Joint Undertaking (EuroHPC JU) to match EU funding. Two lots will support the projects: the first will back up to four Gigafactories, each eligible for up to €100 million in EU funding in phase one and up to €400 million more in phase two; the second supports up to three projects, each with up to €200 million in phase one and €800 million more in phase two. Selected facilities must deploy at least as many of the most advanced AI processors as are currently installed in Europe's most powerful AI factory — rising to three to four times that level in phase two.
To secure hardware supply, the Commission signed letters of intent with AMD, Nvidia and Qualcomm following the EU–US trade deal, while part of the procurement may be dedicated to European start-ups and scale-ups. The call closes on 12 November 2026, with award decisions expected by early 2027 and construction set to begin the same year; selected Gigafactories must start operations within 18 months of contract signature.
