EU opens applications for €10bn AI gigafactory scheme
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The EU just opened bidding for seven giant AI data centres, backed by €10bn in public cash. It's Europe's big swing at not depending on US and Asian chips forever.
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Brussels put its money where its mouth is on Thursday, opening applications for what it's calling AI Gigafactories — a network of up to seven data centre hubs meant to give Europe its own serious AI computing muscle. The headline number is €10bn in public funding, with another €10bn expected to come from private investors once the dust settles, bringing the total to roughly €20bn.
The structure splits into two tiers. Four smaller facilities, each packing at least 75,000 AI chips, can pull in up to €500m apiece. Three bigger sites, requiring 100,000 chips minimum, are eligible for as much as €1bn each. Construction is slated to kick off in early 2027, though the rollout will happen in stages — largely because most of that public money is still tied up in negotiations over the EU's next long-term budget.
And that's the catch worth flagging: only €2bn of the promised funding actually exists right now. The rest hinges on member states agreeing to the bloc's next multiannual financial framework, a process that has a habit of dragging on and getting messy. This isn't a new problem for the programme — when the Commission first floated the gigafactory idea last year, it talked vaguely about
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