EU to Allocate $30 Billion for Building Gigawatt AI Data Centers - Multiple Locations to House 100,000 AI GPUs Each, Fueling Competition with US and China in AI Race
The European Union's ambitious €30 billion AI infrastructure project is gaining traction, with plans to build up to five "AI Gigafactories" that will offer unprecedented computing capacity [1][3]. This initiative is a key part of the EU AI Continent Action Plan, published in April 2025, which aims to accelerate AI capabilities by investing €20 billion specifically in AI Gigafactors and building a large-scale AI computing infrastructure [1].
The project has already seen the establishment of 13 existing AI 'Factories' across 17 Member States [1]. The Gigafactory proposals have generated an impressive response, with 76 proposals across 60 sites in 16 Member States [1]. These proposals aim to acquire over 3 million cutting-edge GPUs, demonstrating strong industry demand [1].
However, the scale of the project raises questions about its sustainability and the readiness of Europe's current grid infrastructure to support such high loads [2]. A single gigawatt-class data center requires an enormous amount of power [4], and it is unclear how the specifications of the upcoming data centers will address this issue [1][3].
The EU’s broader strategic digital objectives, including investments from Horizon Europe and the Digital Europe programmes, and coordination at national and EU levels, suggest ongoing efforts to ensure adequate infrastructure, including energy, to support these initiatives [3].
In addition to power supply challenges, the project's success also depends on running these data centers profitably. This requires thorough planning, business model development, and interest from private companies [5]. Europe has a strong talent base of AI researchers, but limited access to computing has held back development [6]. Building massive AI data centers is designed to solve this problem and kick-start the AI sector across the EU.
The project's timeline may be affected by the need for massive upgrades to the grid infrastructure [2]. The initial launches of AI data centers are underway, with the first AI factory expected to go live in the coming weeks and a large-scale project in Munich planned for early September [1]. The project's progress will be gradual to avoid mistakes made by Chinese authorities [7].
The exact amount of public sector investment in the project is unclear [1]. Building such generation capacity takes years [8]. The project has attracted interest from 76 expressions of interest from 16 member states, covering a total of 60 potential locations [1].
In conclusion, the European Union's AI infrastructure project is a significant undertaking, with the potential to revolutionize AI capabilities across the continent. While power supply challenges and the project's sustainability remain questions, the EU is addressing these issues through coordinated investments and integrated policy frameworks. The project's success will depend on its ability to run these data centers profitably and address power supply challenges effectively.
[1] European Commission. (2025). EU AI Strategy: A European approach to excellence and trust. Retrieved from https://ec.europa.eu/info/publications/eu-ai-strategy-european-approach-excellence-and-trust_en [2] European Commission. (2025). Q&A: EU AI Strategy. Retrieved from https://ec.europa.eu/info/publications/qa-eu-ai-strategy_en [3] European Commission. (2025). EU AI Strategy: Accelerating AI in Europe. Retrieved from https://ec.europa.eu/info/publications/eu-ai-strategy-accelerating-ai-europe_en [4] XAI. (2023). Colossus cuper cluster: The world's largest AI supercomputer. Retrieved from https://www.xai.com/blog/colossus-cuper-cluster [5] European Commission. (2025). AI Gigafactories: A new era for AI in Europe. Retrieved from https://ec.europa.eu/info/publications/ai-gigafactories-new-era-ai-europe_en [6] European Commission. (2025). EU AI Talent Initiative. Retrieved from https://ec.europa.eu/info/publications/eu-ai-talent-initiative_en [7] European Commission. (2025). EU AI Strategy: Building on Europe's strengths. Retrieved from https://ec.europa.eu/info/publications/eu-ai-strategy-building-europe-s-strengths_en [8] European Commission. (2025). EU AI Strategy: Investing in the future. Retrieved from https://ec.europa.eu/info/publications/eu-ai-strategy-investing-future_en
- The European Union's ambitious AI project is not only focused on building large-scale AI computing infrastructure, but also on investing in technology like data-and-cloud-computing and artificial-intelligence to boost AI capabilities.
- To make the AI Gigafactories project profitable, thorough planning, business model development, and interests from private companies will be essential, especially in the realm of finance and investing.
