EU opens AI gigafactory applications for €10bn funding scheme

The European Commission has opened EU AI gigafactory applications for companies and investors seeking to build a new class of AI data centres across the bloc. The programme is backed by €10bn in planned public funding and is expected to reach €20bn in total investment once private capital is included, according to the Commission.

The call covers up to seven AI Gigafactories, a central piece of the EU’s attempt to build more of its own compute capacity rather than relying on infrastructure concentrated in the US and Asia. For startups, cloud providers, chip suppliers and infrastructure investors, the procurement process is the first real test of whether Brussels can convert its AI industrial policy into physical capacity.

The Commission said bidders can apply for two categories of projects. Four smaller sites must each include at least 75,000 AI chips and can receive as much as €500m in public support. Three larger sites must each include at least 100,000 chips and can receive up to €1bn.

How much EU AI gigafactory funding is actually available?

The headline public funding figure is €10bn, but only €2bn is currently available. The rest depends on approval through the EU’s next multiannual financial framework, meaning the full programme is tied to budget negotiations that have not yet concluded.

That funding gap is significant for prospective bidders. The Commission expects construction to start in early 2027, but the rollout will happen in phases because much of the public money has not yet been secured. The result is a procurement process that gives companies a path to bid now while leaving some of the programme’s financing dependent on future EU budget decisions.

The new call also adds detail to a plan that had been unclear when the Commission first presented it last year. At that point, Brussels said €20bn would be mobilised for AI gigafactories but did not say how the split between taxpayer money and private investment would work. That ambiguity left potential bidders without a clear view of the state subsidy available for the projects.

The EU is also trying to square industrial policy with supply-chain reality. The Commission said some procurement criteria may benefit European companies, but it has signed letters of intent with Nvidia, AMD and Qualcomm. Those agreements are meant to help winning bidders secure access to the chips required for the facilities.

That detail points to the core constraint in Europe’s AI infrastructure push: the bloc wants more domestic control over compute, but the hardware layer still depends heavily on US chipmakers. The Commission did not disclose which companies or investors are expected to bid, nor did it name specific locations for the proposed sites.

For the European AI and cloud market, the scheme could become a large public anchor for data-centre builders and so-called neocloud operators if the funding materialises. For now, the concrete news is narrower: applications are open, the first €2bn is available, and most of the promised public backing still has to survive the EU budget process.

This story draws on original reporting from Sifted.