Poland Joins Race for EU's Billion-Euro AI Gigafactory

Poland is formally entering the EU race to build an artificial intelligence gigafactory. The Standing Committee of the Council of Ministers adopted a resolution declaring the country's commitment at around 100 million euros, opening the way for a joint application with several other European Union member states under the EuroHPC initiative.

What the Tender Covers

The European Commission announced the construction of seven AI gigafactories across the EU, divided into two categories. Poland is competing for a spot in the LOT 1 category, covering medium-scale projects, where four consortia will be selected. The three larger installations in the LOT 2 category are set to start at 40,000 graphics processors and eventually reach 100,000.

For Poland, this means infrastructure that will deliver 25,000 computing units equivalent to Nvidia H100 cards in the first phase, growing at least threefold to 75,000 after expansion in subsequent years. The gigafactory is meant to serve the training and fine-tuning of AI models, running them at scale, storing data, and providing secure cloud environments for industry, medicine, finance, science, public administration and cybersecurity.

An Unusual Financing Model

The European Union and member states will not fund the construction of the facility itself. Instead, they will guarantee the purchase of computing services for 60 months after each phase of the project launches. In the first phase, each side, meaning the EU and the participating countries, will put up 100 million euros each for the purchase of computing power, rising to 400 million euros per side in the second phase.

The mechanism is designed to limit investment risk for the companies building the center, since the public sector becomes a guaranteed, stable customer for services for several years in advance. Private partners still need to be selected, as does the final location and the details of the business model.

Wroclaw and an Alliance with Lithuania

The Polish project operates under the name Baltic AI GigaFactory and originally was meant to involve cooperation with Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, though the latter two countries have withdrawn from the initiative. Thanks to the involvement of the Wroclaw University of Science and Technology, Wroclaw is one of the possible sites for the facility, though a final decision on the infrastructure's location has not yet been made. Advanced talks are currently underway with six or seven member states on jointly submitting an application to the European Commission.

Dispute Over Tender Terms

Poland does not agree with all the provisions of the European Commission's December proposal and, together with France, Germany, Czechia, Spain and Sweden, is demanding amendments that would increase member states' real stake in the project. Among other things, this concerns safeguarding the interests of companies operating within the EU against a shift in emphasis toward a model based primarily on the private sector.

We are now close to working out a solution that will strengthen the European Union's digital sovereignty. So I am optimistic that the gigafactories project will be amended the way Poland, France and Germany proposed - Dariusz Standerski, Deputy Minister of Digital Affairs

Deputy Minister of Digital Affairs Dariusz Standerski said the negotiations are heading toward a conclusion and expressed hope they could be wrapped up this summer, which would allow the formal tender procedure to begin. In his view, the Standing Committee of the Council of Ministers' adoption of the resolution declaring Poland's commitment sends a clear signal that the country is highly likely to be among the participants in the AI gigafactories initiative.

Significance for Poland's AI Scene

For Polish companies and research institutions, access to their own EU-cofinanced gigafactory would offer a real alternative to buying computing power from foreign cloud providers, at a time when prices for such services are rising alongside global demand for training AI models. Observers also note that such infrastructure could support the development of domestic language models, including PLLuM and Bielik, as well as AI applications in public administration, healthcare, industry and defense.

The final selection of the winning consortia is expected in early 2027, and construction and configuration of the first phase will take up to 18 months from the signing of the contract, meaning the first AI gigafactories in Europe could become operational in 2028. Until then, Poland still needs to finalize the composition of its consortium, find private partners, and secure the appropriate energy and network infrastructure for the planned location.

Sources: Poland Enters the Race for AI Chips. The Stakes Are a Billion Euros (spidersweb.pl), AI Gigafactory Draws Closer. Standerski: Negotiations Nearing Completion (cyberdefence24.pl), Poland Fights for AI Gigafactory. A Key Decision Looms (wnp.pl)