The morning read on Europe's digital policy Thursday 5 November 2026
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EU AI Factories list: all 19 sites, 13 Antennas and AI Gigafactories

As of 30 October 2026, the EU has 19 AI Factories in 16 Member States and 13 AI Factory Antennas, chosen by the EuroHPC Joint Undertaking in three rounds: December 2024, March 2025 and October 2025. No AI Gigafactory has been selected yet: the tender opened on 30 July 2026, and bids are due on 3 December 2026 for large-scale sites and on 4 February 2027 for medium-scale ones.

Each AI Factory pairs an AI-optimised supercomputer with a support team for onboarding, data and model development, with startups and SMEs as priority users. Germany, Spain and Poland host two factories each; Denmark, Estonia, Norway, Portugal and Türkiye take part through the Finnish and Spanish consortia.

The full list of EU AI Factories

Round one: selected 10 December 2024

  • LUMI AI Factory (Finland): CSC in Kajaani, with Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Norway and Poland. The new LUMI-AI system, built by Bull with AMD Instinct MI430X GPUs, was contracted in August 2026 and is due for users in 2027. Focus: manufacturing, health, telecom networks.
  • HammerHAI (Germany): HLRS in Stuttgart. An HPE system with 860 NVIDIA Blackwell GPUs was contracted in March 2026, with entry into service expected in the second half of 2026. Focus: engineering, manufacturing, mobility.
  • Pharos (Greece): GRNET, running on DAEDALUS at Lavrion, which was inaugurated on 19 October 2026. Focus: health, culture and language, sustainability.
  • IT4LIA (Italy): CINECA in Bologna, with Austrian and Slovenian partners. A new E4 and Dell system was contracted in April 2026. Focus: agrifood, cybersecurity, climate, manufacturing.
  • Luxembourg AI Factory: coordinated by LuxProvide. The new MeluXina-AI, with 1,008 NVIDIA GPUs at Bissen and Bettembourg, was contracted in July 2026. Focus: finance, space, cybersecurity.
  • BSC AI Factory (Spain): Barcelona Supercomputing Center, with Portugal, Romania and Türkiye. It adds AI hardware to MareNostrum 5 (contracted in January 2026) and an experimental platform. Focus: health, finance and legal, public sector.
  • Sweden AI Factory: NAISS at Linköping University, with RISE. Its new Mimer AIF supercomputer from Bull was contracted in April 2026, with installation due to start in 2026. Focus: life sciences, materials, autonomous systems, gaming.

Round two: selected 12 March 2025

  • AI:AT (Austria): Advanced Computing Austria and the AIT Austrian Institute of Technology, with the system at TU Wien in Vienna. Focus: manufacturing, biotech, public administration.
  • BRAIN++ (Bulgaria): Sofia Tech Park, around the new Discoverer++ supercomputer. Focus: Bulgarian-language models, robotics, space observation.
  • AI2F (France): led by GENCI and tied to Alice Recoque, the exascale system planned for CEA's TGCC centre in Bruyères-le-Châtel (installation from 2026); national machines such as Jean Zay fill the gap. Focus: broad, from energy to defence.
  • JAIF, the JUPITER AI Factory (Germany): Forschungszentrum Jülich, around the JUPITER exascale system, plus an inference test platform called JARVIS. Focus: health, energy, climate, public sector.
  • PIAST AI Factory (Poland): Poznań Supercomputing and Networking Center. Focus: health, cybersecurity, space and robotics.
  • SLAIF (Slovenia): IZUM, the Jožef Stefan Institute and ARNES. The new machine is planned for a data centre by the Mariborski otok hydropower plant in Maribor. Focus: green transition, health, language technology.

Round three: selected 10 October 2025

  • CZAI (Czechia): led by VSB – Technical University of Ostrava and linked to KarolAIna, a new AI system at the IT4Innovations centre in Ostrava.
  • LitAI Factory (Lithuania): Vilnius University, at the LRTC VDC3 data centre in Vilnius. Focus: cybersecurity, green energy, digital health.
  • NLAIF (Netherlands): SURF, TNO, Samenwerking Noord and AIC4NL. SURF says the supercomputer goes into a Eurofiber data centre in Groningen in 2027 and should be fully operational by early 2028. Focus: sensitive data such as health records.
  • Gaia AI Factory (Poland): Cyfronet AGH in Kraków, with about 1,000 GPUs planned. Focus: large language models, healthcare, space.
  • RO AI Factory (Romania): ICI Bucharest with University Politehnica of Bucharest. Focus: helping SMEs build their own AI products.
  • 1HealthAI (Spain): Galicia Supercomputing Center (CESGA), with an experimental platform. Focus: human, animal and environmental health.

Apart from AI2F and JAIF, every factory selected in 2025 is getting a new AI-optimised machine. As of 30 October 2026, EuroHPC has signed six AI Factory system contracts, and its releases put the EU share of each at 50 percent, paid from the Digital Europe Programme.

The 13 AI Factory Antennas

Antennas are smaller national hubs that connect local users to a linked AI Factory and may run a modest system for testing and fine-tuning. EuroHPC selected 13 on 13 October 2025, with about €55 million in EU funding matched by national money:

  • BE-AIFA (Belgium): linked to LUMI AIF and JAIF
  • Pharos-CY (Cyprus): linked to Pharos
  • HunAIFA (Hungary): linked to JAIF
  • AIF IRL-Antenna (Ireland): linked to AI2F and the Luxembourg AI Factory
  • AIFA-LAT (Latvia): linked to LUMI AIF
  • CALYPSO (Malta): led by the Malta Digital Innovation Authority, linked to Pharos
  • SKAIAT (Slovakia): linked to AI:AT
  • AIFA-ICE (Iceland): linked to LUMI AIF
  • FAIMA (Moldova): linked to PIAST
  • VEZILKA (North Macedonia): linked to Pharos
  • SAIFA (Serbia): linked to Pharos and IT4LIA
  • HEARTS (Switzerland): works with LUMI AI, the BSC AI Factory, Sweden AI Factory and IT4LIA, using the Alps research infrastructure
  • UKAIFA (United Kingdom): at EPCC in Edinburgh, linked to HammerHAI

AI Gigafactories: from InvestAI to the 2026 call

InvestAI, announced by Commission President Ursula von der Leyen at the Paris AI Action Summit in February 2025, aimed to mobilise €200 billion for AI, including a €20 billion fund for four gigafactories with around 100,000 advanced AI chips each. The AI Continent Action Plan of April 2025 raised the target to up to five and opened a non-binding call for interest, which drew 76 responses covering 60 sites in 16 Member States.

After Council Regulation (EU) 2026/150 gave EuroHPC the mandate in January 2026, the formal call for tenders (EUROHPC-2026-CEI-AIGF-01) opened on 30 July 2026 for up to seven AI Gigafactories in at least seven Member States. The Commission puts public support at up to €10 billion from EU and national budgets and expects at least €20 billion of private investment on top. The announcement does not refer to InvestAI; under its model, EuroHPC and the participating states buy compute time from the winners as anchor customers.

Lot 1 and Lot 2

  • Lot 1, medium-scale: up to four projects, each eligible for up to €100 million of EU money in phase one and up to €400 million more in phase two. Deadline (extended): 4 February 2027, 17:00 Luxembourg time.
  • Lot 2, large-scale: up to three projects, each eligible for up to €200 million in phase one and up to €800 million more in phase two. Deadline: 3 December 2026, 17:00 Luxembourg time.

Participating Member States match the EU contribution. By phase two, a Lot 1 site must hold at least three times, and a Lot 2 site at least four times, as many top-end AI processors as Europe's most powerful AI Factory has today. At launch, 18 Member States had signed the joint procurement agreement: Croatia, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain and Sweden.

Who can bid and what happens next

Bidders must be consortia or special purpose vehicles of companies, public bodies and investors, using one site or several, including across borders. Chips may come from suppliers in Europe or like-minded countries; the Commission has signed letters of intent on hardware access with AMD, NVIDIA and Qualcomm. Most public money is due from the EU's next long-term budget, starting in 2028.

The Commission's launch announcement gave 12 November 2026 as the closing date, while EuroHPC's tender page now lists 3 December 2026 for Lot 2 and 4 February 2027 for Lot 1, extended so that Member States can finish national budget procedures. At launch, the Commission expected awards by early 2027 and operations within 18 months of contract signature, timings set before the Lot 1 extension. No official list of candidate sites has been published.

How startups and SMEs get compute time

Requests go through EuroHPC's AI Factories access modes; the three industrial ones are always open:

  • Playground: for newcomers and small tests, first come first served, with access within two working days.
  • Fast Lane: for users familiar with HPC who need up to 50,000 GPU hours.
  • Large Scale: for more than 50,000 GPU hours over up to a year, with two cut-off dates a month.

These modes are free for AI startups and SMEs working on innovation; other companies can pay per use. A separate AI for Science track serves research and EU-funded projects. The EuroHPC FAQ lists eligible countries, from all EU members to Norway, Switzerland, Ukraine and the UK; users must file a report after their allocation.

Several factories, including Pharos and IT4LIA, also offer help with AI Act compliance; see our AI Act timeline and AI Act section. New contracts and selections appear in Cloud & Data and Research.

Frequently asked questions

How many AI Factories does the EU have?

As of October 2026 there are 19 EuroHPC AI Factories in 16 Member States, plus 13 AI Factory Antennas. All were selected between December 2024 and October 2025.

Where will the EU AI Gigafactories be built?

No sites have been chosen yet. Tenders close on 3 December 2026 for large-scale projects and 4 February 2027 for medium-scale ones, and no candidate locations have been published.

What is the difference between an AI Factory and an AI Gigafactory?

An AI Factory is a publicly co-funded supercomputer with support services for startups, SMEs and researchers. An AI Gigafactory is a far larger, industry-led facility for frontier models, with public bodies buying its compute time.

Is access to EU AI Factories free?

Yes for AI startups and SMEs using the industrial access modes for innovation, and for eligible research. Other companies can pay per use.

What is an AI Factory Antenna?

It is a smaller national hub linked to one or more AI Factories, giving local users access to their computing and services. Thirteen were selected in October 2025, including in Belgium, Ireland, Switzerland and the UK.