Europe · public AI compute
EU AI gigafactories: 2 of 19 AI Factories are running
Of the 19 EuroHPC AI Factories selected since December 2024, 2 are operating, 7 have signed supply contracts and 10 have no contract yet (checked 12 Oct 2026). The AI Gigafactories call (€10bn public money, up to seven sites) now closes on 3 Dec 2026, moved from 12 Nov 2026 by TED change notice 674672-2026. Ireland hosts no AI Factory: it has a €10m Antenna.
Updated 12 October 2026 · data build 2026-10-10 · how we know · corrections
2 of 19 AI Factories are operating; 10 have no supply contract yet
Delivery status of each EuroHPC AI Factory, from EuroHPC JU notices, TED tenders and host-centre pages. Operating = in service or on the TOP500; contracted = supply contract signed, not yet in service; procuring = tender on TED, no award; selected = no public procurement found. Our classification
3 of 19 factories state an accelerator count, 25,868 in total (24,000 of them in operating systems). Most AI Factories publish no GPU count.
Download CSV ↓Source: EuroHPC JU, AI Factories · host-centre and vendor releases (one link per row) · as of 2026-10-12 · status labels are our reading · Compiled by StackPath
13 AI Factory Antennas give smaller countries access, not their own systems
Antennas (selected 13 Oct 2025) connect a country's users to one or more AI Factories abroad; some add a small local system. Reported
| Country | Antenna | Lead | Linked AI Factories | Funding | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| BE | BE-AIFA | – | LUMI AI Factory, JAIF | – | selected |
| CY | Pharos-CY | – | Pharos | – | selected |
| HU | HunAIFA | – | JAIF | – | selected |
| IS | AIFA-ICE | – | LUMI AI Factory | – | selected |
| IE | AIF IRL-Antenna | ICHEC (University of Galway) with CeADAR (UCD) | AI2F, L-AI Factory | €10m | launched |
| LV | AIFA-LAT | – | LUMI AI Factory | – | selected |
| MT | CALYPSO | MDIA (Malta Digital Innovation Authority) | Pharos | – | selected |
| MD | FAIMA | – | PIAST AI Factory | – | selected |
| MK | VEZILKA | UKIM (Ss. Cyril and Methodius University), with government support | Pharos | – | selected |
| RS | SAIFA | – | Pharos, IT4LIA | – | selected |
| SK | SKAIAT | – | AI:AT | – | selected |
| CH | HEARTS | – | LUMI AI Factory, BSC AI Factory, MIMER, IT4LIA | – | selected |
| UK | UKAIFA | EPCC (University of Edinburgh) | HammerHAI | – | selected |
Source: EuroHPC JU, AI Factory Antennas · as of 2026-10-12 · Compiled by StackPath
The gigafactory call closes on 3 Dec 2026, three weeks later than first published
EUROHPC-2026-CEI-AIGF-01 (procurement EUROHPC/2026/OP/0008), opened 30 Jul 2026. Deadline read from TED on each build. Measured
| TED notice | Published | Type | Deadline |
|---|---|---|---|
| 529135-2026 | 30 Jul 2026 | cn-standard | 12 Nov 2026 |
| 674672-2026 | 1 Oct 2026 | cn-standard | 3 Dec 2026 |
TED search pulled 12 Oct 2026: no later change notice. The notice says the deadline was extended by three weeks at the European Commission's request. EuroHPC's call page now shows the new date, but its launch release and a Sullivan & Cromwell memo dated 8 Oct 2026 still give 12 Nov 2026. TED, the EU's official tenders journal, governs.
| Where | Says | Date |
|---|---|---|
| TED contract notice 529135-2026 (original), procedure EUROHPC/2026/OP/0008 | Published 30 Jul 2026 (dispatched 29 Jul). Tender receipt deadline 12 Nov 2026 16:00 (+01:00) for both lots; a second date of 4 Nov 2026 23:59 (likely the last day for clarification requests - inference). | 2026-07-30 |
| TED change notice 674672-2026 (changes notice d8c1a703-6be1-49a2-a503-c1878d863b1c) | Published 1 Oct 2026 (dispatched 30 Sep). Tender receipt deadline 3 Dec 2026 17:00 (+01:00) for both lots; second date 25 Nov 2026 23:59. Stated reason: deadline extended by 3 weeks at the European Commission's request. Lot 1: 4 medium-scale AIGF consortia, est. EUR 4bn; Lot 2: 3 large-scale, est. EUR 6bn; total est. EUR 10bn. | 2026-10-01 |
| TED Search API, all notices with procedure-identifier bc712395-692d-41ab-aa25-8e254ae86eb2 | Only two notices exist (529135-2026 and 674672-2026); no newer change notice as of 11 Oct 2026. | 2026-10-11 |
| EuroHPC JU call-for-tenders page | Now shows deadline 3 December 2026, 17:00 (CET); publication and opening date 30 Jul 2026; no corrigendum note or last-updated date shown. | 2026-10-11 |
| EuroHPC JU launch press release | Still says submission deadline 12 November 2026; up to seven AIGFs in at least seven member states; selection early 2027; operations within 18 months. Not updated for the extension. | 2026-07-30 |
| Sullivan & Cromwell memo | Dated 8 Oct 2026; still gives 12 Nov 2026 16:00 Luxembourg time and does not mention the extension (outdated vs TED). Lot 1 min 25k H100-eq in Phase 1 / 75k in Phase 2; Lot 2 40k / 100k; EU expenditure capped at EUR 5bn (Lot 1 up to EUR 500m per AIGF, Lot 2 up to EUR 1bn). | 2026-10-08 |
| EU Funding & Tenders portal tender record (repo cache, not re-fetched today) | Deadline 2026-12-03 17:00:59, corrigendum 00674672-2026 listed. | 2026-10-10 |
Before the call, an informal round drew 76 expressions of interest from 16 member states for 60 sites and at least 3 million GPUs (European Commission, 30 Jun 2025). The Commission did not name the countries. InvestAI (11 Feb 2025) first spoke of four gigafactories of around 100,000 chips each; the call now asks for up to seven.
Source: TED notices API · EuroHPC call page · European Commission, 76 expressions of interest · as of 2026-10-12 · Compiled by StackPath
Bids are confidential: 4 consortia have gone public, out of 76 expressions of interest in 2025
Consortia that have announced themselves or been reported. MW and GPU figures, where any exist, are as reported, not grid capacity secured. Reported
| Bid / consortium | Members | Country | Site | MW | Status | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AION | Scaleway (iliad Group), Ardian, Artefact, Bull, Capgemini, EDF, Orange | FR | – | 200* | bid announced | 2026-05-20 |
| AETHER | 2CRSi, Dassault Systemes (OUTSCALE), SiPearl, Axelera AI, Viridien, Electricite de Strasbourg, Equans | FR | near Strasbourg (two industrial sites under negotiation) | 42* | bid announced | 2026-08-24 |
| Deutsche Telekom and Brookfield | Deutsche Telekom, Brookfield | DE | – | – | EoI reported | 2025-12-04 |
| Portuguese public-private consortium | incl. Altice Portugal and NOS (reported) | PT | – | – | EoI reported | 2025-12-04 |
* MW from secondary sources only (see CSV for the basis). Bid = a 2026 candidacy announced by the consortium; EoI = reported as part of the 2025 expression-of-interest round.
Download CSV ↓The Commission said the 2025 expressions of interest added up to more than €230bn of indicative investment (Light Reading, 4 Dec 2025). The call itself has two lots: Lot 1: four medium-scale gigafactories (est. €4bn); Lot 2: three large-scale (est. €6bn) — TED 674672-2026.
Source: consortium releases and press (one link per row) · as of 2026-10-12 · Compiled by StackPath
Our reading. Selection is not delivery. The headline "19 AI Factories" counts sites chosen, while the number running is far smaller, and most factories still publish no accelerator count. The gigafactory call follows the same pattern one step earlier: a size and a budget, a deadline that has already moved once, and no public list of bidders. The meaningful test comes after selection in early 2027: whether winning sites have grid connections that can deliver within the call's 18-month clock (see grid queues).
Status labels are our reading of public notices: operating = in service or on the TOP500; contracted = EuroHPC supply contract signed, hardware not yet in service; procuring = tender published on TED, no award; selected = no public procurement found on TED (a host-run or below-threshold tender could be missed). Pharos counts as operating because DAEDALUS entered the June 2026 TOP500; EuroHPC's own pages still describe it in the future tense. JAIF counts as operating because JUPITER is in service; its own add-on inference system (JARVIS) is still being procured. Most AI Factories publish no accelerator count, so GPU totals here are partial. Gigafactory bids are confidential. The table lists only consortia that have announced themselves or been reported; the 2025 round had 76 expressions of interest, and the Commission put their indicative value at over €230bn. The list of 18 states in the joint purchase of gigafactory compute time (including Ireland) comes from a trade outlet, not an official page.
Questions people ask
- What is an EU AI gigafactory?
- A very large AI data centre part-funded by the EU through the EuroHPC Joint Undertaking. The call for tenders (EUROHPC-2026-CEI-AIGF-01, opened 30 Jul 2026) offers about €10bn of public money for up to seven gigafactories, alongside at least €20bn expected from private investors. It sits under InvestAI, the €200bn AI investment plan announced in February 2025, which earmarked €20bn for gigafactories.
- When is the AI gigafactory deadline?
- 3 Dec 2026. The original contract notice (TED 529135-2026) set 12 Nov 2026; change notice 674672-2026, published 1 Oct 2026, moved it. Some pages, including EuroHPC's own press release and a law-firm memo, still give the old date. We recheck TED daily.
- How many EU AI Factories are there and how many are working?
- 19 AI Factories have been selected in 16 countries. As of 12 Oct 2026, 2 are operating, 7 have a signed supply contract but no system in service yet, 3 are procuring and 7 have no public procurement yet, on our reading of EuroHPC notices and TED. Both operating ones run on systems that were already being built when their factories were selected: JUPITER and DAEDALUS.
- How many expressions of interest did the gigafactory call get?
- 76 expressions of interest from 16 member states, covering 60 sites and at least 3 million GPUs, in the 2025 informal round (European Commission, 30 Jun 2025). The Commission did not say which countries.
- Does Ireland have an AI Factory or a gigafactory bid?
- No AI Factory. Ireland has an AI Factory Antenna (AIF IRL-Antenna, run by ICHEC with CeADAR; €5m EU plus €5m national), which gives Irish users access to the French and Luxembourg AI Factories. For gigafactories, the Government committed €10m to buy compute from a French-led bid, conditional on it winning. No Irish-hosted bid is public.