Poland and Lithuania Near Decision on EU AI Gigafactory

Poland's Ministry of Digital Affairs held an online meeting on July 9, 2026, for entrepreneurs interested in taking part in building an EU artificial intelligence gigafactory, planned for Poland in partnership with Lithuania. Deputy Minister Dariusz Standerski said negotiations over the funding model for the entire program are nearing completion.

The meeting, organized by the digital affairs ministry, took the form of a webinar on Microsoft Teams and ran from 3pm to 5pm. It brought together representatives of digital infrastructure operators, technology suppliers, investors and digital service providers, the entities eligible to submit bids in the EuroHPC JU tender procedure.

What Is an AI Gigafactory

The European Commission announced the AI Gigafactories program in February 2025 as a response to Europe's widening gap with the United States and China in the race for computing infrastructure to train large language models. The InvestAI budget, backed by the European Investment Bank, is meant to fund five large-scale data centers spread across the continent.

Poland and Lithuania declared interest in June 2025 in building a joint facility called the Baltic AI GigaFactory. Latvia and Estonia originally wanted to join the project as well, but both countries withdrew, leaving Warsaw and Vilnius as the main partners in the venture. The European Commission approved the Baltic consortium's application in July 2025, and a financing memorandum with the European Investment Bank was signed in October.

Dispute Over the Funding Model

The main point of contention in the negotiations remains how the gigafactory operators will be chosen and financed. The European Commission initially proposed a purely market-based approach, under which location and investment structure would be decided solely through a commercial tender. Poland, France, Germany, Czechia, Lithuania, Spain and Sweden formed a coalition opposing this approach, arguing that strategic AI investments require greater government influence over the structure, financing and location of such facilities.

We are now close to working out a solution that will strengthen the European Union's digital sovereignty. I'm optimistic that the gigafactory project will be revised in line with the proposal from Poland, France and Germany - Dariusz Standerski, Deputy Minister of Digital Affairs

Standerski stressed during the meeting that the ministry wants Polish technology companies to have a real chance of joining the consortia building the eventual infrastructure, rather than being limited to the role of subcontractors for foreign operators. The presentation covered the project's assumptions and the rules under which companies will be able to register their involvement in the procedure run by the EuroHPC joint undertaking.

What It Means for Polish Companies

For Poland's technology sector, the AI gigafactory means potential access to computing power that domestic companies and universities currently lack, a shortfall long cited as a barrier to developing homegrown language models, including Bielik and PLLuM. The declared 100 million euros in public support is meant to serve as an incentive for private capital to invest in the consortia responsible for building and operating the center.

The timeline calls for formal bidding under the EuroHPC JU procedure to open in summer 2026, with the competition decided by year's end and construction of the first European gigafactories potentially starting as early as 2027. The European Commission estimates the first facilities will come online in 2028, meaning companies planning to join a consortium still have several months to prepare their bids.

In parallel, the Ministry of Digital Affairs is preparing a proposal for a 3 percent digital tax that would apply to global technology companies with more than 1 billion euros in global revenue and at least 25 million zlotys in revenue in Poland. The proposal is expected to go to public consultation later in summer 2026, though the ministry says it is not directly linked to gigafactory funding.

Sources: CyberDefence24 (cyberdefence24.pl), Gov.pl - Ministry of Digital Affairs (gov.pl)