EU AI Gigafactories by European Commission: status and timeline

Milestones

Next · Proposal deadline

Call for tenders opened30 Jul 2026Complete.
Proposal deadlineTarget 12 Nov 2026Current milestone.
Project awards announcedTarget 2027Not yet reached.
Gigafactories operationalTarget 2028Not yet reached.

Most important updates

European Commission launches call for 7 AI Gigafactories with €30 billion investment target30 Jul 2026
10 EU nations express interest in AI Gigafactories; Commission secures chip commitments from NVIDIA, AMD, QualcommJul 2026

Upcoming

12 Nov 2026Proposal deadlinein 32 days (next)
2027Project awards announced
2028Gigafactories operational

Current obstacles

Attracting competitive private capital€20B must compete with US and Chinese initiatives. Projects must offer competitive returns to private investors.
Operational sustainabilityConstruction is de-risked by public funding, but operating costs (power, cooling, chips, staff) must be covered by commercial revenue.
Power supply in selected regionsMost interested countries face electricity constraints. 500+ MW per facility required; grid upgrades needed.

Physics limits

European electricity costsEuropean power costs more than US or Asia. Gigafactories must operate at high utilization to compete on cost.
Semiconductor supply chainAdvanced AI chips made in Taiwan, South Korea, US. Geopolitics create supply risks for Europe.

How it works

4 parts

Public funding catalyst

€10B public unlocks €20B private

EU and member states provide €10B to de-risk gigafactory construction and attract €20B private capital.

Two-lot structure

Small and large projects

Lot 1: up to 4 projects at €500M each. Lot 2: up to 3 projects at €1B each. Single-country or multi-country consortia.

Shared governance

Public research and sovereign access

EU and members receive proportional compute access for research and government workloads in exchange for investment.

Chip partnerships

NVIDIA, AMD, Qualcomm LOIs

Commission signed letters of intent with chip makers to secure advanced AI accelerators for gigafactories.

Spec sheet

Spec	EU AI Gigafactories
Target gigafactories	7^R (reported)
Total investment target	€30 billion^R (reported)
EU and member state funding	€10 billion^R (reported)
Private sector investment target	€20 billion^R (reported)
Member states in procurement	18^R (reported)

^R reported by the company

Update log

2 updates

Thu 30 Jul

Major: European Commission launches call for 7 AI Gigafactories with €30 billion investment targetPressCommercial

Jul 2026

Major: 10 EU nations express interest in AI Gigafactories; Commission secures chip commitments from NVIDIA, AMD, QualcommPressPartnership

About European Commission

The team behind EU AI Gigafactories

European Commission

EU Digital Identity, IRIS² satellites, age verification

European Commission is the EU's executive branch. It develops EU Digital Identity Wallet (privacy-preserving credentials by end-2026) and IRIS² satellite constellation (348 satellites, launches 2029).

EU Digital Identity Wallet rolling to member states by Dec 2026; privacy-preserving credentials.
IRIS² constellation: 348 satellites (330 LEO + 18 MEO), launches 2029, service 2031. €15.6B+ investment.
Zero-knowledge-proof age verification: users verify age without exposing name, ID, or photo by end-2026.

commission.europa.eu (opens commission.europa.eu)Company profile →

Founded: 195868 yrs
Headquarters: Belgium
Status: Government
Valuation: government
Raised: $16B1 round
Last round: EU Budget IRIS² allocation · $16B2026
Works in: CryptoIdentity & walletsSpaceflight
Coverage: 3 programs · 5 updateslatest 6 Aug 2026checked 11 Oct
Partners: Eutelsat (opens eutelsat.com)SES (opens ses.com)Hispasat (opens hispasat.com)Airbus Defence and Space (opens airbus.com)Thales Alenia Space (opens thalesaleniaspace.com)
People: Ursula von der Leyen (opens commission.europa.eu)President of the European CommissionKaja Kallas (opens commission.europa.eu)VP High Representative, Foreign Affairs Security

Spec

EU AI Gigafactories

Target gigafactories

7^R (reported)

Total investment target

€30 billion^R (reported)

EU and member state funding

€10 billion^R (reported)

Private sector investment target

€20 billion^R (reported)

Member states in procurement

18^R (reported)