AI gigafactories: the EU program and the German bids
An AI gigafactory is a large computing center for training and running AI models, planned by the European Union with about 100,000 of the latest AI chips per site. The European Commission announced its InvestAI initiative in February 2025, with 20 billion euros for such gigafactories, and according to the Commission's project page received 77 expressions of interest for 60 sites in 16 member states.
For banks the program is about where large European models get trained. A bank that wants a model under EU law, see sovereign AI, needs computing capacity under the same law, and the gigafactories are planned to provide it at scale.
How the EuroHPC call works
The EuroHPC Joint Undertaking, the EU body for supercomputing, opened the formal call on July 30, 2026, after the EU amended the EuroHPC regulation in January 2026. It aims at up to seven AI gigafactories in at least seven member states. Applications close on November 12, 2026, the selection is planned for early 2027, and a gigafactory is to start operating within 18 months.
Applicants are consortia, which can set up a special purpose company for the site. Public money acts as an anchor customer for part of the capacity, and the consortia raise the larger share privately. The Commission and the European Investment Bank signed a memorandum on the financing in October 2025.
The German bids
Germany did not submit one joint bid in the first round. Deutsche Telekom, Ionos and the Schwarz Group's IT arm each submitted their own expression of interest in June 2025, as CIO (in German) reported. Bavaria entered with a project called Blue Swan, with the Leibniz Supercomputing Centre and the real estate developer Investa Group in the consortium, according to Business Punk (in German).
Telekom already runs a commercial AI factory with close to 10,000 Nvidia GPUs in Munich. The EU also funds smaller AI factories at supercomputing centers, among them HammerHAI at the High-Performance Computing Center Stuttgart, selected in December 2024, and an AI factory at Jülich.
What it means for banks
A bank or a group of banks could rent capacity in a gigafactory to train or fine-tune models on its own data, with the operator under EU law. Under DORA that is an ICT third-party arrangement like any cloud contract, with the same need for an exit strategy and a check of who controls the operator. The energy draw of such sites also falls under the rules for data centers in Germany.
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What is the difference between an AI factory and an AI gigafactory?
AI factories are the first EU step: AI computing capacity added to existing supercomputing centers, such as HammerHAI in Stuttgart. AI gigafactories are separate, much larger sites with about 100,000 AI chips each, built for training the largest models, and financed with private money next to public funds.
When will the AI gigafactories be selected?
The EuroHPC call closes on November 12, 2026, and the selection is planned for early 2027. Construction can start after that.
AI gigafactories and Finance Loop
Finance Loop follows the gigafactory program in its Digital Infrastructure & Sovereignty track, because the selected sites will offer capacity for training models inside the EU. Finance Loop offers consortia and operators a sponsored meetup to explain to banks what capacity they will offer and on what terms.
Finance Loop is a professional network and has the goal of driving the adoption of emerging technologies in finance, such as AI, digital payments, cloud and blockchain solutions. Finance Loop helps its members build skills and personal networks in these fields: Investment & Digital Assets, Payments & Digital Money, Digital Infrastructure & Sovereignty, and Risk & Compliance.