BRUSSELS -- The European Union is offering 10 cardinal euros ($11.4 billion) successful backing for firms to erect 7 AI gigafactories arsenic it seeks to adjacent the AI spread with U.S. and China, the 27-nation bloc's enforcement said connected Thursday.
The European Commission said it would similar the nationalist financing to gully an further 20 cardinal euros ($22.8 billion) successful backstage investment.
“Access to the earthy standard of computing powerfulness wrong AI gigafactories is simply a strategical necessity for Europe arsenic AI improvement accelerates,” said Henna Virkkunen, the Commission enforcement vice president overseeing tech sovereignty.
The efforts by Brussels to found “ tech sovereignty ” person gained urgency arsenic leaders interest astir dependence connected technologies from overseas providers, which they accidental could beryllium “weaponized” against Europeans. U.S. President Donald Trump has railed against the EU implicit its tech regulations and China has constricted the proviso of minerals captious to the sector.
Firms tin present bid for contracts to physique gigafactories that are planned to person astatine slightest 100,000 cutting-edge AI chips, making them astir 4 times much almighty than the information centers presently moving successful the EU.
The EU's existent computing powerfulness — delivered by a web of 19 AI information centers from Finland to Spain — volition much than treble erstwhile these 7 gigafactories travel online.
Europe lags acold down the U.S. and China successful important sectors for the improvement of AI, according to a 2025 appraisal by the U.S. Federal Reserve. China has an tremendous electrical powerfulness capableness for information centers portion the U.S. bags the lion's stock of backstage AI investment.
Europe doesn’t manufacture galore of the millions of components needed for information centers and energy successful the EU tin outgo treble oregon triple what it does successful the U.S. and China, according to a Commission study presented to European Parliament successful June.
“European businesses and nationalist authorities volition proceed to trust connected US AI providers to the detriment of European work providers struggling to enactment astatine the frontier,” said the report, which listed the bloc's apical 5 unreality work providers arsenic each American. “Dependence connected hyperscale unreality and AI computing work providers, peculiarly for highly captious usage cases, volition proceed to exposure information to third-country entree and transportation risks to work continuity, endangering operational autonomy.”
France's Mistral present runs the 1 of the largest AI information halfway successful the EU truthful acold astatine its field successful Paris. Mistral makes the Le Chat chatbot but it hasn't kept gait with American AI companies similar OpenAI, shaper of ChatGPT, and Chinese rivals similar DeepSeek.
While governmental leaders similar French President Emmanuel Macron person raised the alarm astir Europe lacking homegrown AI companies, heavy anxieties tally rife crossed the continent astir the economical disruption and privateness implications of the nascent technology.
The Commission said AI products developed with the increasing web of information centers volition “follow EU standards connected information protection, safety, information and ethics,” possibly referring to the bloc’s Digital Services Act and its Digital Market Act.
In June, 40 mayors astir the satellite signed a pact to curtail the antagonistic interaction of the operation of AI information centers connected the earthy resources, vigor prices oregon clime targets of cities from Phoenix to Melbourne.
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