The AI Gigafactory

Since 2024, the Commission has accelerated the creation of 19 AI Factories across 16 Member States, backed by roughly €10 billion for the 2021-2027 period. According to the AI Continent Action Plan, AI Factories integrate “AI-optimised supercomputers” and will function as “dynamic ecosystems that foster innovation”. Formally, however, they are oriented toward open scientific research rather than commercial use. Announced in 2025 under the InvestAI framework and tied to a €20 billion public-private funding scheme, the five planned AI Gigafactories across the EU aim at training industry-scale “AI frontier models”, which require massive computing and energy power. At least 65% of AI Gigafactories’ computing capacity will be reserved for commercial use, marking a point of divergence from AI Factories and signaling the EU’s ambition to compete with US hyperscalers. These public-private partnerships promise to deliver digital infrastructures that promote public values yet present significant challenges. To what extent will these facilities mitigate or reinforce dependencies? How can the EU operationalise open-source or other public-interest solutions that can be competitive enough to serve as alternatives to hyperscalers? Can they comply with the EU’s climate pledges considering their energy and water needs?

Speakers

Charlotte Ducuing is a post-doctoral researcher at the Centre for IT and IP law of the KU Leuven (CiTiP, Belgium). She has a background both in political sciences and law. Since November 2025, she conducts her post-doctoral research on democratizing the regulation of Big Tech as public utilities as a research fellow at the Research Foundation – Flanders (FWO), as part of a broader critical analysis of the infrastructural turn of European Union law.

Fabian Ferrari is an Assistant Professor in Cultural AI at Utrecht University. He holds a PhD from the University of Oxford and an MSc from the London School of Economics and Political Science. Fabian is the Principal Investigator of the NWO Veni project Conditional Computing: Reimagining the Governance of Public AI Infrastructure. His research has been published in journals such as Nature Machine Intelligence, Cultural Studies, New Media & Society, Big Data & Society, and Competition & Change. He has co-edited a book, Digital Work in the Planetary Market, which was published open access by MIT Press.

Anushka Mittal is a PhD Researcher at the Institute of Information Law, University of Amsterdam, looking at the legal governance of access to computing. She looks at the transformations underway in organising computing, primarily by the clouds and the way law constitutes it. She takes a historical approach to see the various configurations of computing, from mainframes to supercomputers and now quantum computers. She further explores the options for any credible regulation in this space, given its infrastructural expanse.

Charis Papaevangelou (he/him) is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Amsterdam’s Institute for Information Law (IViR), and affiliated with the University of Toulouse’s Lab for Applied Social Sciences (LERASS). His research examines how large technology firms, including their digital platforms, AI systems and material infrastructure, affect and intersect with our political, economic, informational, and natural structures and environments. He holds a PhD from the University of Toulouse on the political economy of online platform governance. Leevi Sari: Leevi Saari is a PhD Candidate researching the political economy of artificial intelligence in the European Union. He is also an EU Policy Fellow at AI Now Institute. Before his PhD, he served as a policy advisor in the European Parliament and in various supporting research capacities in University of Helsinki, University of Tampere and Oxford University.

Plixavra Vogiatzoglou (she/her) is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Amsterdam Institute for Information Law (IViR). She holds a PhD from the KU Leuven Centre for IT & IP Law (CiTiP), where she remains an affiliated research fellow. Her work critically assesses digital policy and governance frameworks, such as digital sovereignty, and the impact of emerging technologies on rights, freedoms, and society. She also teaches on topics of digital regulation, like artificial intelligence and data protection.

Leevi Saari is a PhD Candidate researching the political economy of artificial intelligence in the European Union. He is also an EU Policy Fellow at AI Now Institute. Before his PhD, he served as a policy advisor in the European Parliament and in various supporting research capacities in University of Helsinki, University of Tampere and Oxford University.