European Commission launches competition for seven AI gigafactories, Czech project in Zbraslav has government backing
The European Commission has officially launched a competition to build up to seven AI gigafactories with a budget of 10 billion euros in public funding and over 20 billion euros in private investment. Czechia is also bidding for one with a project in Zbraslav near Prague and partner Multiverse Computing.
The European Commission has officially launched a competition to build up to seven so-called AI gigafactories – large data centres with at least 100 thousand state-of-the-art AI chips in each, intended for developing, training and running advanced artificial intelligence models. Compared with the original plans, the public budget has been reduced from 20 to 10 billion euros (a combination of European funds and national budgets), while the number of planned centres has increased from five to seven. The public funding is intended to attract at least a further 20 billion euros in private investment. According to sources, EuroHPC JU is expected to evaluate applications by 12 November 2026, the results are expected to be announced in early 2027, and construction of the first centres could begin that same year. The Commission previously received 77 preliminary proposals from 16 member states and sixty locations.
Czechia is also bidding for one of the gigafactories with a project by České Radiokomunikace in Zbraslav, Prague, being developed as an expansion of the Gateway data centre currently under construction (expanding capacity to up to 77 MW). The government backed Czech participation in late June 2026. The Ministry of Industry and Trade stated that, in the first phase, it envisages a commitment of 2.5 billion Czech crowns from the Czech Republic, to be matched in full by the European Union, with payments made gradually from 2028 to 2032. Sources differ on the total project budget: according to one estimate, it is expected to reach approximately 100 billion Czech crowns, of which around 70 billion would be contributed by České Radiokomunikace (or rather its owner Cordiant Digital Infrastructure) as a private investor, with 15 billion each coming from the Czech state and the European Union; according to the second source, the second phase of the competition could involve a sum in the upper tens of billions of Czech crowns, without specifying the shares.
The commercial partner in the Czech project is the Spanish startup Multiverse Computing, which wants to contract for up to 30 megawatts of power capacity at the gigafactory and invest up to 50 million euros (approximately 1.2 billion Czech crowns) in the project. The company is also expected to supply CompactifAI software, which, according to the company, can reduce the size of existing AI models by up to 90 percent while maintaining accuracy. Multiverse Computing recently secured an investment of 570 million dollars, was valued at 1.7 billion dollars, and HP, Santander, Orange and Scania are among the investors.
Why it matters
The competition determines where in Europe cutting-edge computing infrastructure for AI will be built and who will have access to it – for Czechia, it is an opportunity to obtain capacity through the project in Zbraslav that can be used for research, processing sensitive data, digitalising public administration and supporting domestic companies and startups. The involvement of the state (co-financing of 2.5 billion Czech crowns in the first phase) and private partners such as Multiverse Computing also represents a concrete financial commitment and timeframe (results in early 2027, construction potentially from 2027) that those interested in future computing capacity can use for planning.
What was added since the original report
Verified updates
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Specific location of the Czech project: Zbraslav (Prague); Cost of the Czech project: 100 billion Kč; Investment by partner Multiverse Computing: up to 50 million EUR; Planned start of construction: 2027; Capacity of the centres: 100 thousand AI chips per centre
- Specific location of the Czech project: Zbraslav (Prague)
- Cost of the Czech project: 100 billion Kč
- Investment by partner Multiverse Computing: up to 50 million EUR
- Planned start of construction: 2027
- Capacity of the centres: 100 thousand AI chips per centre
Two audiences, two different impacts
What this means
For individuals
If the Czech project succeeds in the competition, Czech researchers, startups and parts of public administration could gain access to computing capacity for developing and training AI models and processing sensitive data.
For a business
The Czech state is committing to co-financing the project (2.5 billion Kč in the first phase, matched by the European Union, paid gradually from 2028 to 2032), and České Radiokomunikace, together with partner Multiverse Computing, plans investments in infrastructure near Prague, which may affect the domestic availability of computing capacity for businesses, research and public administration.
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Event sources
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