The European Union (EU) recently outlined plans to provide €10 billion in funding to build seven AI gigafactories in the union. This news comes in addition to unlocking €20 billion in private investment for the project.
In its latest push to accelerate Europe’s technological sovereignty and close the gap to the U.S. and China, the EU stated the initiative would expand AI compute capacity and give start-ups, SMEs, industry and others access to infrastructure for training, inference and tuning of advanced frontier AI models.
It explained the gigafactories would be used to combine advanced AI processors, software and cloud technology stacks, high-speed connectivity and energy-efficient data centres.
They will add to Europe’s network of 19 AI gigafactories with the aim of ensuring the continent can develop advanced AI on its own infrastructure in line with EU rules, following standards on data protection, security and ethics.
The first step is a call for tenders, with the EU inviting consortiums or special purpose vehicles bringing companies, public entities, investors and other partners to apply.
It explained the facilities can be established in a single member state, either on one site or across several locations.
They may also include cross-border developments in several member states through distributed AI computing facilities.
Applications will undergo a competitive valuation to select successful projects. The application process closes on 12 November, with successful bidders to be announced in 2027.
Facilities will need to become operational within 18-months of contracts being signed.
Henna Virkkunen, EVP for Tech Sovereignty, Security and Democracy at the European Commission, said “access to the raw scale of computing power within AI gigafactories is a strategic necessity for Europe as AI development accelerates”.
Source: Mobile World Live
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Source: Tahawul Tech