EU Launches $11.5B Tender to Build Seven AI Gigafactories Across Europe

The European Commission has opened a tender to establish up to seven AI gigafactories across the region, a move aimed at closing the infrastructure gap with the United States and China in the global race for artificial intelligence dominance. The initiative, unveiled this week, is designed to expand Europe's access to the massive computing power required to train, fine-tune and run advanced AI models, while reducing the continent's reliance on infrastructure based outside its borders.

The program is backed by $11.5 billion in public funding, with the Commission estimating that it could attract at least $23 billion in additional private investment. Originally planned to support five gigafactories, the Commission raised the target to seven following strong interest from EU member states. The facilities are intended to complement Europe's existing network of 19 AI factories, bringing together advanced AI processors, software, cloud technology, high-speed connectivity and energy-efficient data center infrastructure under one roof.

Henna Virkkunen, the European Commission's executive vice president for tech sovereignty, security and democracy, described the tender as a milestone in the continent's AI ambitions. "Access to the raw scale of computing power within AI gigafactories is a strategic necessity for Europe as AI development accelerates," she said in a statement. The new facilities are expected to provide computing capacity to AI startups, scale-ups, small and medium-sized businesses, as well as industrial companies, researchers and public authorities.

The gigafactory program is part of the EU's broader push to become an "AI continent," ensuring that AI systems are developed in line with the bloc's data protection, security and ethics regulations. The European High-Performance Computing Joint Undertaking (EuroHPC JU) and participating member states will jointly procure compute access from the selected facilities. Eighteen member states, including Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Sweden, Poland and Ireland, have already signed a joint procurement agreement with the EuroHPC JU.

While the Commission is framing the gigafactories as a cornerstone of Europe's technological sovereignty, the facilities will not be limited to European hardware. The Commission said that while part of the procurement could be directed toward European startups and scale-ups, the consortium building the gigafactories will be able to source processors and other hardware from suppliers both in Europe and abroad. In a related development, chipmakers AMD, Nvidia and Qualcomm have signed letters of intent with the Commission to ensure that companies involved in the projects have access to the necessary hardware.

The tender will close on Nov. 12, with successful bidders expected to be announced in early 2027. Selected facilities are projected to become operational within 18 months of contract signing. Industry analysts view the initiative as a significant step toward strengthening Europe's position in the global AI landscape, though questions remain about execution timelines and the ability to attract sufficient private capital to match the public investment.