Photo: Shutterstock The European Union has officially launched a call for tenders to establish up to seven AI Gigafactories across the bloc, marking one of the largest technology investments in its history as Brussels seeks to position Europe as the world's first "AI Continent."
The initiative, announced on Thursday, July 30, 20206, will combine up to €10 billion in public funding from the EU and participating member states and is expected to unlock at least €20 billion in private investment.
The planned AI Gigafactories will provide the massive computing power needed to develop advanced artificial intelligence models and will support businesses, researchers, public institutions, and startups across Europe.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen today, July 30, 2026, described artificial intelligence as "the most important technology of our time," saying the project is central to Europe's ambitions of achieving greater technological sovereignty.
The facilities will combine cutting-edge AI processors, cloud technologies, high-speed connectivity, and energy-efficient data centers. Together with Europe's existing network of 19 AI Factories, they are expected to strengthen the EU's competitiveness in an increasingly crowded global AI race dominated by the United States and China.
Under the proposal, up to seven projects will be selected across two funding rounds. The first phase could support up to four Gigafactories with as much as €500 million in EU funding per project, while a second category could see up to three facilities receive as much as €1 billion each.
Selected Gigafactories will be required to deploy some of the world's most advanced AI processors, with capacity significantly exceeding that of Europe's current largest AI facilities.
Eighteen EU member states have already joined the initiative through a joint procurement agreement with the European High Performance Computing Joint Undertaking (EuroHPC JU). Participating countries include France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Sweden, Ireland, Greece, and Poland.
The AI Gigafactories will be open to consortia composed of companies, public entities, investors, and research organizations. Projects may be located in a single member state or distributed across multiple countries.
To ensure access to critical hardware, the European Commission has also signed letters of intent with major U.S. technology companies AMD, NVIDIA, and Qualcomm as part of the recently announced EU-U.S. trade agreement.
Officials say the facilities will operate in accordance with EU standards on data protection, safety, security, and ethics.
Applications for the initiative will remain open until November 12, 2026. Award decisions are expected in early 2027, with construction anticipated to begin later that year. The first AI Gigafactories could become operational within 18 months of contract signing.
If successful, the project could reshape Europe's technological landscape and establish the continent as a major player in the global artificial intelligence industry.