European Commission gets 76 AI gigafactory proposals across 60 EU sites
The European Commission collected 76 expressions of interest for building AI gigafactories in 16 EU member states. This beats all projections and signals strong momentum for AI infrastructure in Europe.
Respondents plan to install over 3 million advanced GPUs to power future large-scale AI models. The input came from a diverse range of data center operators, telcos, power suppliers, tech partners, and investors. 
The commission stressed these are preliminary, non-binding proposals meant to help shape Europe’s AI infrastructure roadmap.
“The high number of proposals received went well beyond the commission expectations. It is a clear testament to the very high momentum and interest in AI across Europe, and especially in AI gigafactories. This wave of interest underscores Europe’s opportunity to position itself as a global powerhouse in artificial intelligence, fully aligned with the bold vision set out in the AI Continent Action Plan,” the European Commission said.
The next official call for gigafactory bids will launch in Q4 2024 after further talks with the respondents.
The AI gigafactories will be large-scale, energy-efficient hubs designed to train and deploy massive AI models with hundreds of trillions of parameters. They aim to be Europe’s answer to facilities like CERN—but for AI development.
This builds on the EU’s €20 billion InvestAI plan to create four major AI gigafactories equipped with roughly 100,000 next-gen AI chips each.
The initiative promotes a European cooperative model—making AI tech accessible beyond just the tech giants to startups, research centers, and governments.
Also worth noting: Nvidia recently confirmed partnerships with European governments and cloud providers to help deploy AI infrastructure continent-wide.
“While these submissions are not formal applications, they will play a crucial role in helping the European Commission and member states identify and map out a dynamic, non-binding roster of potential candidates ready to establish world-class AI gigafactory facilities across the European Union,” the commission added.
Expect more updates later this year when the official AI gigafactory proposal process kicks off.
