{"id":431204,"date":"2025-06-30T17:54:48","date_gmt":"2025-06-30T15:54:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2025\/06\/30\/ai-gigafactories-virkkunen-ai-act\/"},"modified":"2025-06-30T19:34:26","modified_gmt":"2025-06-30T17:34:26","slug":"artificial-intelligence-european-gigafactories-attract-industrys-interest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2025\/06\/30\/artificial-intelligence-european-gigafactories-attract-industrys-interest\/","title":{"rendered":"Artificial intelligence, European gigafactories attract industry’s interest"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brussels – The EU is\u00a0taking pride in the success so far of its\u00a0artificial intelligence (AI)\u00a0<\/strong>strategy, which envisions the construction in the near future of several\u00a0gigafactories<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0(i.e., large-scale facilities) as forges of\u00a0Digital Innovation\u00a0<\/strong>Made in Europe<\/strong><\/em><\/span>.<\/p>\n

Speaking to the press this afternoon (June 30), European Commission Executive Vice-President in charge of Technological Sovereignty, Security, and Democracy,\u00a0<\/span>Henna Virkkunen<\/strong>, said she was\u00a0<\/span>pleased with the response from industry<\/strong>. The call for expressions of interest was opened by the EU executive on 9 April and expired on 20 June.<\/p>\n

“We received 76 applications proposing to set up AI\u00a0gigafactories<\/i>\u00a0 in 16 Member States and 60 different sites<\/strong>,” she said, calling it “an achievement that far exceeds our expectations and demonstrates Europe’s growing momentum and enthusiasm for innovation in AI<\/strong>.” “Our initial goal was to contribute to the creation of four or five” new structures<\/a>, she explained.<\/p>\n

These are not formal applications, Virkkunen specified, “but they will play a substantial role in helping the European Commission and Member States to identify and create a dynamic, non-binding list of potential candidates<\/strong> ready to set up world-class AI\u00a0Gigafactories across the EU.”<\/p>\n

\n

1\/2 An overwhelming response to our Call of Expression of Interest in AI Gigafactories: 76 proposals from 16 Member States across 60 different sites!<\/p>\n

We are ready to support Europe\u2019s enthusiasm for innovating in AI in Europe. The moment to shape our #AI<\/a> future is now. pic.twitter.com\/1ninZhV7lD<\/a><\/p>\n

– Henna Virkkunen (@HennaVirkkunen) June 30, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

These maxi-facilities\u2014where next-generation AI\u00a0models<\/strong> will be developed, trained, and deployed<\/strong>\u2014will “be a game changer by integrating\u00a0leading-edge computing power<\/strong>, energy-efficient data centres\u00a0and AI-driven\u00a0competitiveness<\/strong><\/strong>,”\u00a0she continued, and will enable European industry to “compete globally”.<\/p>\n

According to her, the companies that responded to the Berlaymont’s informal appeal have pledged to collectively invest more than \u20ac230 billion over the next three to five years<\/strong>, indicating their intention to purchase at least 3 million state-of-the-art processors.<\/p>\n

When\u00a0<\/span>Ursula von der Leyen<\/strong>\u00a0launched the\u00a0European Investment\u00a0<\/strong>Initiative\u00a0<\/strong>last<\/strong><\/a><\/span>\u00a0February<\/a><\/strong><\/span>, Virkkunen recalls, the goal was\u00a0<\/span>to mobilise 200 billion<\/strong>.<\/span>\u00a0“This shows the confidence in European leadership in AI<\/strong>, but also that we have a real opportunity to position Europe as a global power in AI<\/strong>,” she concluded. The Vice-President went on to announce a formal call for proposals<\/strong> by the end of the year, probably in November.<\/p>\n

About the AI Act<\/strong>, the EU’s strategy on artificial intelligence, Virkkunen denied that it is part of the trade tug-of-war between the EU and the US<\/strong> on tariffs. “We are finalising the code of conduct<\/strong>,” she said, adding that “the next important milestone will be 2 August, when the AI Act will apply to generative AI<\/strong>: we will publish a code of conduct before then to support industry and SMEs to comply with our AI Act.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

According to data provided by the EU Commission, companies in the sector would be prepared to invest up to 230 billion to build maxi plants for the development of new AI models.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7876,"featured_media":431171,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[25705,25710],"tags":[29100,31621,25821,29984],"class_list":["post-431204","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","category-net-tech-en","tag-ai-act-en","tag-ai-gigafactory-en","tag-artificial-intelligence-en","tag-henna-virkkunen-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/431204","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7876"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=431204"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/431204\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":431241,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/431204\/revisions\/431241"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/431171"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=431204"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=431204"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=431204"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}