Poland's Government Approves Funding for European AI Gigafactory Bid

Poland's Council of Ministers (Rada Ministrów) approved a resolution on Tuesday guaranteeing a financial contribution to the construction of an artificial intelligence gigafactory on Polish territory. It is the government's first formal, binding step in the race for the EU computing hub, after months of declarations and negotiations with other European Union member states.

What the government approved

The Standing Committee of the Council of Ministers (Komitet Stały Rady Ministrów) had already accepted the draft resolution earlier, and on Tuesday the full Council of Ministers gave its final approval. The document formally commits the Polish budget to contributing to the construction and operation of the gigafactory, a necessary condition for Poland to even enter the EU tender for consortia building AI computing infrastructure.

Deputy Minister of Digital Affairs Dariusz Standerski stressed that adopting the resolution opens the door for Poland to take part in the European tender procedure. Without this document, the country could not formally register its participation or guarantee foreign partners that the financial contribution would actually be disbursed.

Thanks to the adoption of the resolution, we now have the ability to take part in the European tender for the gigafactory - Dariusz Standerski, Deputy Minister of Digital Affairs

The cost

Under the resolution, the government guarantees more than 400 million zloty, meant to finance the purchase of computing capacity for the planned infrastructure in the gigafactory's first phase of operation. That figure is smaller than earlier signaled commitments of up to 1 billion euros in total public support, but it represents a concrete, legally binding budgetary commitment rather than just a political declaration.

The overall ICT infrastructure investment is estimated at around 3 billion euros. Under EU rules, public spending cannot exceed a set share of the project's value: half the support is to come from the EU's InvestAI program, with the rest covered by the member states participating in the consortium. The joint undertaking EuroHPC will act as the buyer of computing capacity on behalf of the public sector.

Competition for seven gigafactories

The European Union plans to build seven AI gigafactories across member states, including four medium-scale facilities in the LOT 1 category and three large ones in the LOT 2 category, each costing around 2 billion euros. Poland is bidding for a medium-scale gigafactory with a target capacity of at least 75,000 H100-class computing units, with a minimum of 25,000 already deployed in the first phase.

Aleksandra Tomaszewska, director of the research and innovation department at the Ministry of Digital Affairs (Ministerstwo Cyfryzacji), explained that a gigafactory is a large-scale computing center designed to train artificial intelligence models, not an ordinary data center. Standerski acknowledged that Poland is in advanced talks with six or seven member states about jointly submitting an application to the European Commission, though the full list of partners will only be revealed once negotiations are complete.

An AI gigafactory is a large-scale computing center designed to train artificial intelligence models - Aleksandra Tomaszewska, director of the research and innovation department, Ministry of Digital Affairs

What comes next

The formal tender for the European consortia that will build and operate the gigafactories is set to be announced after July 20, 2026, and is expected to last about 15 weeks. Winning consortia will have to launch computing services no later than 18 months after signing the contract, which, under the current timeline, means Poland's gigafactory could start operating around mid-2028.

For Polish tech and research companies, this opens up potential access to computing capacity that the domestic market currently lacks, as well as a chance to take part in the consortia building the infrastructure itself. Standerski said it is now time for Polish businesses to get involved in preparing the bid, though the final shape of the consortium and the list of foreign partners remain open until negotiations conclude.

Sources: Government adopts resolution on AI gigafactory (cyberdefence24.pl), Poland competes for AI gigafactory (wnp.pl), Poland to compete for EU AI gigafactory worth 1 billion euros (itreseller.pl)