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EU Scales Back AI Data Center Plans With Smaller Tender

June 18, 2026 at 07:11 EDT

Infra & Chips
Policy & Regulation

The European Union has scaled down its plans for data centers to support AI, outlining a call for tenders that includes smaller-scale facilities than originally envisioned, according to a report on June 18, 2026.

InvestAI Facility · EU AI Gigafactories

Europe's €20B Bet on AI Gigafactories Stumbles

The flagship plan to build up to five mega data centers is hit by funding uncertainty and grid delays — the official tender is pushed back, and the facilities may be shrunk before bidding even opens.

€20B

public funding (~$23.3B) to build the Gigafactories

Gigafactories planned, ~100,000 AI processors each

10 yrs

grid-connection delays in some cases

From a crowded field to a shrinking shortlist

Interest at the informal stage collapsed to roughly 10 candidate groups, capped at one per country.

76–77

expressions of interest
(16 states · 60+ sites)

→

~10

current candidate
groups remaining

The Tender Timeline Slips

Originally

May 2026

→

Delayed to

July 2026

…and the facilities on offer may be scaled down from large to smaller sites, prompting some consortia to reconsider taking part.

The ambition

Core of the AI Continent Action Plan — at least tripling data center capacity by the 2030s to keep pace with the US and China, with priority access for startups and SMEs.

The walls

Power-supply and grid limits, subsidy and demand uncertainty, talent drain, a regulation-heavy reputation — and a plan that critics call modest next to big US projects.

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