EU launches call for tenders for up to 7 AI Gigafactories to expand European computing capacity
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Summary
On Jul 30, 2026, the EU launched a call for tenders to establish up to 7 AI Gigafactories across Europe. The initiative is supported by up to €10 billion in EU and national funding and is expected to unlock at least €20 billion in private investment. Consortia or Special Purpose Vehicles can apply. European High Performance Computing Joint Undertaking and 18 Member States will jointly procure compute access time. The first lot supports up to 4 projects and the second lot up to 3 projects, across two development phases. The Commission also signed 3 letters of intent with US hardware providers AMD, NVIDIA and Qualcomm. The call closes on Nov 12, 2026.
Why it matters
The call opens a competitive process for large-scale AI computing infrastructure for training, inference and fine-tuning of frontier AI models, open to start-ups, industry, academia and public authorities. Award decisions are expected by early 2027, after which contracts are to be signed so construction can begin in 2027. Selected facilities are expected to start operating within a maximum of 18 months from signature.
- Parties involved
- European Commission; European High Performance Computing Joint Undertaking
- Document number
- IP/26/1708
- Primary source
- European Commission (ec.europa.eu)
Source retrieved: . Sources are often in other languages; links open the original. - Topics
- General AI governance · Frontier models & safety