Europe invests €20 billion in super-powerful AI gigafactories: an ambitious response to global competition

The European Union has announced a large-scale initiative to develop artificial intelligence, which involves the creation of 13 next-generation gigafactories. The total investment in this strategic project will amount to €20 billion. These new technological facilities will become the basis for the development, testing and scaling of state-of-the-art AI models, as well as Europe's response to rapid competition with the US and China.

The project is part of the European Commission's new strategy called "AI continent", which aims to strengthen the EU's digital autonomy. According to European Commission Vice-President Genna Virkkunen, AI is already a critical technology on which the economic competitiveness, national security and technological independence of EU countries depend. "The global race in AI is far from over," she stressed.

The need for such an initiative arose against the backdrop of Europe’s significant lag in the field of artificial intelligence. According to Stanford University, only three advanced AI models were created in Europe in 2024 — and all of them were developed in France. For comparison, the US created 40 such models over the same period, and China — 15. In addition, no EU country entered the top 5 world leaders in terms of the pace of AI development, where the US, China and the UK are in the lead. France took sixth place, and Germany — eighth.

The gigafactories planned to be created in the EU will differ significantly from current data centers: if modern facilities have up to 25 thousand processors for working with AI, then in the new capacities this figure will reach more than 100 thousand. This will allow Europe to significantly increase its ability to create and train advanced artificial intelligence models.

These gigafactories will focus on the implementation of projects in the category of "technological moonshots" - initiatives with breakthrough potential in areas such as healthcare, biotechnology, high-tech industry, robotics and basic scientific research. It is these areas that should become the basis for a new wave of technological development in Europe.

In addition to infrastructure investments, the European Commission is considering the possibility of amending the current legislation in the field of AI. Adapting the regulatory framework should provide effective legal support for rapid technological change and create favorable conditions for the development of innovations within the EU. Europe is seriously betting on artificial intelligence as the main driver of its future digital era.