Europe just bet big on homegrown artificial intelligence, staking up to €10 billion in public money on a plan that could pull in double that amount from private investors. The move aims squarely at closing the continent’s compute gap and reducing reliance on foreign tech infrastructure.
The European Commission, working through the EuroHPC Joint Undertaking, now invites consortiums to pitch plans for up to seven massive AI Gigafactories. These sprawling data hubs will pack tens of thousands of advanced processors alongside cloud platforms, high speed interconnects, and energy efficient cooling systems. The goal: give startups, universities, manufacturers, and public agencies the raw horsepower needed to train frontier models without renting capacity overseas.
Henna Virkkunen, the executive vice president overseeing tech sovereignty, framed the initiative as a strategic imperative. Compute access at unprecedented scale, she argued, determines whether Europe shapes its own AI destiny or watches from the sidelines. The new infrastructure must operate under EU rules covering security, ethics, and data protection, a deliberate contrast to less regulated alternatives.
The funding splits into two tracks. One contingent of up to four facilities can tap €100 million in phase one and an additional €400 million later; each must match the processor count of Europe’s largest existing AI factory before tripling it. A second bracket covering three even larger sites makes €200 million available upfront, with another €800 million earmarked for expansion. Those sites will start at double the capacity of today’s leader and target a fourfold increase.
Cross border proposals qualify, meaning computing power could distribute across several member states. Eighteen countries signed the joint procurement agreement, including France, Germany, Spain, Italy, and Sweden. That coalition plans to buy compute access once the gigafactories come online, pooling demand to attract serious private co-investment.
Hardware sourcing remains a critical piece. Successful bidders can buy from European chip firms and from allied nations. The Commission also secured letters of intent with AMD, NVIDIA, and Qualcomm after recent trade talks, a signal meant to reassure investors that supply chains will not bottleneck.
Applications close in November 2026. EuroHPC expects to issue funding decisions by early 2027, with construction starting that same year. If timelines hold, the first gigafactories begin operations roughly eighteen months after contracts get signed. The outcome will define whether Europe fields sovereign infrastructure capable of sustaining a competitive AI sector through the next decade.
