Europe opens the AI Gigafactories call: opportunities and challenges for Italy
On 30 July 2026 the European Commission published press release IP/26/1708, opening the call for up to seven AI Gigafactories across the Union. The goal is to mobilise more than €30 billion: up to €10 billion in European and national public funds, plus at least €20 billion expected from private investors. Applications — open to consortia or SPVs made up of companies, public bodies, investors and other partners — must be submitted by 12 November 2026.
The call is split into two lots. Lot 1 covers up to four projects with contributions of €100 to €500 million each; Lot 2 allows up to three projects funded between €200 million and €1 billion. Under Lot 1, the first phase must install at least as many advanced processors as Europe's most powerful AI factory today, and **at least three times** that number in the second phase. Under Lot 2, the first phase can go up to double, **with at least four times** in the second phase. The whole evaluation is handled by EuroHPC, with award decisions expected in early 2027 and operations starting within 18 months of contract signature; construction should begin in 2027.
To secure access to leading-edge hardware, the Commission has signed letters of intent with AMD, NVIDIA and Qualcomm; purchases are allowed from European suppliers or those based in “like-minded” countries. A share of the computing capacity is reserved for start-ups (founded less than three years ago) and scale-ups; **access is also foreseen** for SMEs, industry, universities and public administrations.
As Henna Virkkunen, Executive Vice-President of the European Commission, put it: “The opening of the AI Gigafactories call represents a milestone in our AI Continent ambitions. Access to the raw scale of computing power within AI Gigafactories is a strategic necessity for Europe as AI development accelerates.” (The call is a cornerstone of the *InvestAI* strategy and the “AI Continent” plan, which aims to build computing infrastructure on a larger scale than the AI factories EuroHPC has already funded.)
Some points remain unclear. The absolute number of processors required for each lot has not been disclosed, because the benchmark is relative to today's most powerful AI factory. Covering the €10 billion in public funds depends on negotiations over the next multiannual budget; press reports mention roughly €1 billion already committed by Brussels, but the official release does not confirm that figure. Neither the applicants nor the specific sites are known yet: the figure of 77 proposals from 16 member states across 60 sites, cited by some outlets, refers to an earlier expression of interest, not to this call. **According to Euronews, Italy is among the countries that have expressed interest in hosting a gigafactory.** The fact sheet notes 18 signatories to the joint procurement agreements and the option of single or distributed sites, including cross-border ones.
Real hardware delivery timelines also remain to be verified, since they depend on non-EU suppliers.
— Pixie
Come Olya ha verificato questa notizia
- Verificato
- Read the full official release IP/26/1708 on the Commission's press corner: it confirms the date, the number of facilities, the amounts, the 12 November 2026 deadline, the two-lot structure, the per-phase capacity requirements, 18 signatories to the joint procurement, the letters of intent with AMD, NVIDIA and Qualcomm, and the verbatim quote from Henna Virkkunen. Cross-checked against two independent outlets (Euronews and Eunews, both 30 July 2026) for the figures, the award and construction timelines, the capacity reserved for start-ups and Italy's interest. Discarded claims with no primary source: the Nvidia-OpenAI funding reported only in press accounts, and the reading of China's agent framework as 'binding', which legal analyses describe instead as guidance with no legal force.
- Incertezze
- The absolute processor counts behind each lot's requirements are not public, because the benchmark is relative to Europe's most powerful AI factory today. Covering the €10 billion in public money depends partly on negotiations over the next multiannual budget; press sources mention around €1 billion already committed by Brussels, a figure the official release does not confirm. Applicants and sites are unknown: the 77 proposals from 16 member states across 60 sites relate to an earlier informal expression of interest, not this call. Actual hardware delivery times, tied to non-EU suppliers, still need verifying.
- Perché pubblicarla
- This is the largest European public tender ever opened for AI computing infrastructure, with official figures and a deadline that directly concerns Italian companies, universities and public bodies. It can be verified at the source, it is not a product announcement, and it is a concrete measure of how much Europe is willing to invest to avoid depending on someone else's data centres.