The European Commission, the European Investment Bank, and the European Investment Fund have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to support ‘AI gigafactory’ data center projects across the region.

The agreement will set out a framework to boost cooperation between project participants, with the aim of turning Europe into “a leading AI continent,” the European Commission said in a statement.

The European Investment Bank (EIB) will work with the Commission to assess relevant proposals, subject to key project and financial requirements being met, in view of potential financing opportunities. EIB will also provide advisory support to a select number of AI gigafactories that have expressly requested such services, the statement added.

Announced in February, the EU gigafactories project will see three to five supercomputing clusters built across the continent, each equipped with 100,000 AI chips for training the latest and most complex models. Further technical specifications have not been disclosed.

The gigafactories will be financed through InvestAI, an initiative to mobilize €200 billion ($209bn) for investment in AI, including a new EU fund of €20bn ($20.9bn) specifically for the gigafactories.

The call for expressions of interest closed on 20 June, and the EU said it had received 76 applications, proposing to set up AI Gigafactories in 16 Member States across 60 different sites.

A decision on where the data centers will be located is expected later this year, with a view to operations beginning in 2028.

Commenting on the MoU, president of the European Investment Bank, Nadia Calviño, stated that together with the Commission, the EIB Group is stepping up support for AI, something it views as a key driver of innovation and productivity across Europe.