Europe’s AI Gigafactories: Powering a Sovereign Artificial Intelligence Future.

The European Commission’s AI Gigafactories initiative is rapidly gaining momentum, receiving 76 expressions of interest covering 60 potential sites across 16 EU member states. This response highlights Europe’s ambition to establish sovereign AI capabilities and reduce reliance on foreign technologies.

AI Gigafactories will be high-performance computational hubs designed to develop and train next-generation AI systems. Unlike traditional data centers, these facilities focus exclusively on AI, offering the infrastructure needed to match or exceed global benchmarks.

While commercial confidentiality prevents the naming of companies, major European telecom firms, data center operators, power companies, and tech giants are all reportedly involved. Combined, these proposals could lead to the deployment of three million GPUs, providing unprecedented training capacity.

What sets these Gigafactories apart is not just scale—but ecosystem integration. They aim to bring together computing infrastructure, energy efficiency, data, and talent under one roof, accelerating innovation in fields such as healthcare, climate modeling, automation, and digital services.

Sustainability is a core focus. Some projects plan to leverage renewable energy sources like hydroelectric power and natural cooling methods, with Northern Sweden being explored as a possible location for a zero-carbon AI factory.

The EuroHPC Joint Undertaking will oversee the next phase, with formal calls for development expected in late 2025. If successful, these Gigafactories could cement Europe’s leadership in ethical, scalable, and sovereign AI development.