Overview
- The European Commission formally launched the EuroHPC procurement for up to seven AI “Gigafactories,” with the process opened on 30 July 2026 and public bidding now under way.
- The plan bundles up to €10 billion in staged public grants intended to leverage at least €20 billion in private investment, with funding split into two classes that offer phased payments of €100–200M in phase one and €400–800M in phase two per project.
- Eighteen EU member states have joined the joint procurement and will top up EU grants with national funds, while national consortia from several countries including multiple German firms are preparing bids after a proposed unified German bid collapsed.
- Key conditions and risks remain unresolved because award of later funding tranches depends on national and private commitments, parts of the public money hinge on EU budget talks, and technical and sovereignty rules such as the Cloud and AI Development Act still need final detail.
- The procurement sets a 12 November 2026 bid deadline, expects awards in early 2027 and construction from late 2027, and could reshape access to large-scale compute for universities, industry and public bodies while Europe still relies on non-EU hardware suppliers like Nvidia.