AI Factories & Gigafactories Made in Europe: How the EU Is Building Its AI Ecosystem

Is Romania joining the AI race? In June, the Romanian Authority for Digitalization announced the country’s bid to host one of the most ambitious European projects in the field of artificial intelligence: Black Sea AI Gigafactory. The project could attract an investment of approximately $5 billion and has the potential to transform Romania into a strategic hub for high-performance computing in Europe.

The Black Sea AI Gigafactory project involves the installation of over 100,000 AI accelerators across two locations: Cernavodă (Phase I) and Doicești (Phase II), which were mainly selected for their energy advantages. The infrastructure will be powered by a sustainable energy mix of up to 1,500 MW, based primarily on low-carbon nuclear energy.

However, this is just one of the opportunities generated by the EU’s AI Factory / AI Gigafactory initiative funded by the European Commission through the European High Performance Computing Joint Undertaking (EuroHPC JU) — the body responsible for developing and coordinating Europe’s high-performance computing infrastructure.

Next, we explore the other opportunities, components, and key elements included in the EU’s strategic approach to AI development.

A “CERN for AI”: What Is the AI Factory / AI Gigafactory Initiative?

AI is becoming a strategic priority for Europe, and through the AI Factory / AI Gigafactory initiative, the European Commission is taking decisive steps toward strengthening the EU’s position on the global tech map. This so-called initiative is, in fact, a broad set of measures with complex objectives: reducing dependence on American and Chinese infrastructures and ensuring free access to computing power for startups, SMEs, and researchers. Instead of a Europe that consumes technology, a new Europe is emerging—one that creates, controls, and democratizes access to high-performance computing (HPC) resources, while fostering a competitive AI ecosystem across the continent.

Through the AI Continent Action Plan , the European Commission is accelerating the development of a strong AI infrastructure in Europe, based on three main pillars: AI Factories, AI Gigafactories, and the Cloud and AI Development Act.

On one hand, AI Factories aim to train and optimize AI models, backed by a €10 billion budget for the 2021–2027 period. AI Gigafactories, four times more powerful than AI Factories, are designed for the development of complex AI models and benefit from €20 billion in funding through InvestAI. In parallel, the Cloud and AI Development Act seeks to boost research in sustainable infrastructure and attract investments, aiming to triple the EU’s data center capacity over the next 5–7 years.

Timeline and context:

January 2024 – AI Innovation Package: The EU adds AI Factories to its list of strategic priorities and launches investments via Horizon Europe and Digital Europe.

February 2025 – InvestAI, a €200 billion program for AI investments, is launched, with €20 billion allocated specifically for AI Gigafactories. Public-private partnerships are strongly encouraged.

April 2025 – AI Continent Action Plan: The EU sets out its roadmap for a network of AI Factories and energy-efficient AI Gigafactories, integrated into major data centers and inspired by the CERN model.

What Are the Short- and Medium-Term Objectives?

Between 2025 and 2026/2027, the European Union has set concrete steps to strengthen its AI infrastructure through the AI Factory / AI Gigafactory initiative:

• At least 13 AI Factories will become operational.
• Several AI Antennas—regional access points—will be launched to allow users to remotely connect to high-power AI resources.
• At least 9 next-generation AI supercomputers will be acquired and installed, distributed across various EU regions.
• Up to 5 AI Gigafactories will be created, each equipped with over 100,000 AI accelerators and designed for maximum performance: energy efficiency, high-speed networks, secure supply chains, and AI-driven automation.

The AI Factory Projects Have Been Selected. Which Countries Will Host Them?

So far, EuroHPC JU has selected 13 AI Factory projects in two phases, laying the foundation for the future of artificial intelligence in Europe.

In the first phase, in December 2024, the first seven consortia were designated, bringing together 15 EU member states (including Romania) and 2 participating countries. The AI Factories will be built in Finland, Germany, Greece, Italy, Luxembourg, Spain, and Sweden. The estimated investment is €1.5 billion (EU funding and national contributions).

Here are the selected projects:

1. BSC AI Factory (Spain, Barcelona): An initiative led by Spain, Portugal, Turkey, and Romania. It develops AI infrastructure for industry, government, SMEs, and startups, with a focus on health, energy, and agriculture. The project includes an upgrade to the MareNostrum 5 supercomputer and an experimental platform for new technologies.
2. IT4LIA (Italy, Bologna): AI infrastructure based on the LEONARDO supercomputer, supporting the agri-food, cybersecurity, and manufacturing sectors. Italy partners with Austria and Slovenia.
3. LUMI AI Factory (Finland, Kajaani): Coordinated with five other Nordic and Eastern European countries, this project enables rapid AI solution development.
4. L-AI Factory (Luxembourg, Bissen): Powered by the MeluXina-AI supercomputer, it supports sectors such as finance, space, and the green economy. It offers fast and customized support for companies, with a strong focus on startups and SMEs.
5. MIMER (Sweden, Linköping): A mid-range AI supercomputer with cloud access and scalable storage for sensitive data. It focuses on medicine, materials, autonomous systems, and gaming, and develops AI models for structural biology and personalized medicine.
6. HammerHAI (Germany, Stuttgart): Offers a scalable and secure AI platform for research and industry, with support for machine learning and hybrid HPC/AI. It helps companies access pre-trained AI models.
7. Pharos (Greece, Athens): Uses the DAEDALUS supercomputer to address needs in healthcare, culture, and sustainability, offering end-to-end support for users (from dataset provision to AI model training).

In March 2025, six additional AI Factory projects were selected to be developed in Austria, Bulgaria, France, Germany, Poland, and Slovenia, as follows:

1. AI:AT (Austria) – Hosted at TU Wien in Vienna, this AI Factory will provide companies with access to datasets, advanced AI models, and scalable computing infrastructure.
2. BRAIN++ (Bulgaria) – Located in Sofia Tech Park, it will include the Discoverer++ supercomputer and a dedicated AI hub. The project targets support for startups, the development of large language models (LLMs) for the Bulgarian language, robotics, and AI-based space observation.
3. AI2F (France) – Will leverage France’s existing supercomputing infrastructure, including Alice Recoque, an Exascale EuroHPC supercomputer set to go live in 2026. It aims to support the use of AI in healthcare, energy, agriculture, education, and more.
4. JAIF (Germany) – Built around JUPITER, Europe’s first exascale supercomputer, located at Forschungszentrum Jülich. It will provide integrated access to AI resources and host an experimental platform for developing and testing AI models. The project will support key sectors such as health, energy, education, and culture, and will collaborate closely with AI2F.
5. PIAST (Poland) – Backed by universities in Poznań, Toruń, and the Wielkopolska region, it will use the national supercomputer and the Piast quantum computer. It targets areas such as healthcare, cybersecurity, robotics, space, sustainability, and the public sector.
6. SLAIF (Slovenia) – To be installed in a new data center near the Mariborski otok hydropower plant. Its goal is to foster AI innovation in both business and the public sector, offering training, technical support, and knowledge transfer across the region.

Good to Know:

• May 2, 2025, was the deadline for submitting applications in the third round of AI Factory establishment.
• In April 2025, EuroHPC JU launched a call for proposals for AI Factory Antennas , enabling EU member states to deploy national AI Factory services without investing in their own supercomputing infrastructure.

AI Gigafactories: Next Steps

Another important date is June 20 — the European Commission closed the call for expressions of interest regarding the establishment of AI Gigafactories. A total of 76 proposals were received from 16 member states, covering 60 different locations.

The purpose of the call was to gather early insights from industry leaders, private and public investors, as well as member states interested in shaping the future AI infrastructure in Europe. According to a press release , although these proposals are not considered official applications, they will help the European Commission and member states create a shortlist of potential candidates for developing world-class AI Gigafactory facilities.

Thus, the ground is being prepared for the official project call, scheduled to launch by the end of 2025, with the actual implementation of the infrastructures expected to be completed most likely between 2026 and 2027.

Black Sea AI Gigafactory: What Makes Romania’s Proposal Unique?

Romania’s proposal, developed with the support of international experts from the World Bank, was submitted to the European Commission via EuroHPC JU in the form of a letter of intent to host the Black Sea AI Gigafactory.

The project is backed by a national consortium bringing together public, private, and academic sectors — including companies from the energy industry, consumer goods, advanced technologies, innovative startups, and research institutes. Authorities have announced plans to further expand and strengthen it.

Practically, Romania has expressed the desire to develop a “state-of-the-art AI infrastructure with a hybrid architecture, capable of serving both complex AI training and inference processes within a robust, secure, and sustainable operational framework.” As mentioned at the beginning of the article, this would involve installing over 100,000 AI accelerators in Cernavodă and Doicești, powered by 1,500 MW of nuclear energy.

• Unique competitive advantages of the Romanian project: direct power supply from nuclear sources (Cernavodă), digital infrastructure connected to major European nodes via fiber optics and submarine cables, an industrial site with SMR co-location potential (Doicești), hybrid cooling systems, and integration into the national high-speed communications network.
• Impact: strengthening Europe’s AI capacity, stimulating innovation in Central and Eastern Europe, supporting Ukraine’s digitalization, technologically integrating the Republic of Moldova, and expanding AI services to Serbia and Turkey.

The development of AI Factories and AI Gigafactories in the EU marks a crucial step towards consolidating European technological sovereignty, boosting long-term innovation and competitiveness in artificial intelligence. This evolution will also drive the data center sector, which is essential for supporting digital infrastructure. We hope Romania seizes this opportunity and plays its cards wisely through projects that highlight its strengths.