The European Union launched an official process Thursday to build seven massive AI data centers as part of a €30 billion [1] initiative.
This investment represents a strategic effort to prevent Europe from falling behind in the global artificial intelligence race. By establishing these "gigafactories," the EU seeks to reduce its reliance on foreign technology and build domestic compute capacity to compete with the U.S. and China.
Seven industry consortia will be involved in the development of these hubs [1]. The project fulfills a commitment made by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen during an AI summit last year [1].
"The launch of an official process for seven industry consortia willing to build AI 'gigafactories' fulfills a promise made by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen at an AI summit last year," von der Leyen said [1].
Several nations have already signaled their support for the plans. Germany, Greece, Portugal, Italy, and Spain are backing the initiative to integrate these compute hubs into their national infrastructures [1].
While the total push is valued at €30 billion [1], other reports indicate specific funding allocations of €11.4 billion [2] associated with the broader strategy. These facilities are intended to provide the raw processing power necessary for training large-scale AI models, a resource currently dominated by a few global tech giants.
By distributing these hubs across multiple member states, the EU intends to create a decentralized network of high-performance computing. This approach is designed to foster innovation across the bloc while ensuring that data sovereignty remains a priority for European governments.
“The EU seeks to reduce its reliance on foreign technology and build domestic compute capacity.”
This initiative marks a shift from the EU's primary focus on AI regulation toward active industrial competition. By investing in physical infrastructure, the bloc is acknowledging that legislative frameworks like the AI Act are insufficient without the underlying hardware—GPUs and data centers—required to develop sovereign AI models. Success will depend on whether the EU can attract the necessary technical talent and energy resources to power these hubs.
