Seven Gigafactories are in the planning, and about 30 billion euro is being mobilised for them, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said after EU leaders held on November 13 their first-ever AI Summit.
The seven Gigafactories “will provide the computing capacities our startups need to build the most advanced AI models,” Von der Leyen told a news conference after the informal European Council meeting.
More computing capacity will also be key for Europe to play a role in the development of frontier models, frontier AI, she said.
For Europe’s tech sovereignty, massive investments will be required, Von der Leyen said.
“At least 500 billion euro according to our own estimates,” she said.
“We have done very well in creating a vibrant start-up ecosystem. Europe is creating more tech start-ups than the US, but many of these start-ups fail to receive the necessary support to scale,” Von der Leyen said.
“That is why we have created the Scaleup Europe fund which has been a great success from the outset. What is missing now are the large investments in chips, compute and frontier AI.”
“Therefore, we need to complete our Savings and Investment Union, and attract private investment. And of course, our next European budget must also reflect this ambition,” she said.
She said that the meeting had seen a shared will to put forward ideas for funding for Tech sovereignty financing.
“I will follow up with an ambitious proposal,” Von der Leyen said.
Europe leads in AI adoption, she said.
In 2025, 37 per cent of EU businesses used AI on average in the EU. Looking at specific member states, Finland is “outstanding”, with 66 per cent of businesses using AI already – almost double than the US, Von der Leyen said.
“We want to continue this trend and accelerate the use of AI – move AI from the screen to the real world,” she said.
“That is why, earlier this year, I appointed Jim Snabe as Special Envoy for Industrial Artificial Intelligence.”
“We are focusing work on five sectors where AI can have the biggest value and impact. In each sector, we will deliver a vision coupled with concrete actions. The first part of this work will come out in two weeks,” Von der Leyen said.
European Council President António Costa told the news conference: “AI is the most important technology of our time”.
Europe must make the most of its benefits, from higher productivity to better public services, Costa said.
“We must also manage the risks effectively. To do that, we must help set global standards and responsible global governance to make AI safe and human-centric,” he said.
“Europe has real strengths: we have skilled talent, world class research and a dynamic start up scene.
Now is the time to translate them into real advantages,” Costs said.
“That will depend on the choices we make. Above all: on how much public and private investment we can mobilise to develop our own competitive AI models, on our capacity to secure value chains and reduce dangerous dependencies, and on our access to affordable and clean energy sources.”
“At the same time, we need to ensure effective adoption of AI in our economy to reap its productivity gains. We are already acting,” he said.
Initiatives like the Savings and Investments Union and the so called “28th regime” will help, Costa said.
“But the volumes of funding that we need to catch up with our global peers require significant extra efforts. The next European long-term Budget, in particular the new European Competitiveness Fund, will play a decisive role,” he said.
Clear oversight for managing the risks and challenges of AI is a pre-condition for public trust,” Costa said: “Without trust, AI strategy cannot succeed”.
The European Union is the first region in the world with an AI governance framework, he said.
“And we can use our experience to shape global standards. For that, the European Union must be active where this debate is taking place: in the G7, in the G20, supporting the efforts of the upcoming UK presidency, and in the United Nations.”
“We also have to reflect on the impact of AI on our labour markets and globally on our society, especially on the sustainability of our social model,” Costa said.
“That is why we want to make AI and its impacts on societies the central theme of our Social Summit in 2027, where we will mark 10 years of the European pillar of social rights, together with our social partners,” he said.
On November 12, the European Parliament adopted – by 405 votes to 133 with 60 abstentions – a resolution calling for parliamentary scrutiny and regulation of the impact of artificial intelligence on EU democratic processes, institutional balance, and fundamental rights.
According to the resolution, MEPs recognise AI’s transformative potential in supporting EU lawmaking but emphasise that AI use within the EU institutions must remain human-centred, subject to human oversight, and aligned with EU values.
AI can assist with evidence-based policymaking, and the simplification and evaluation of EU law, MEPs argue, but must never replace human political responsibility or result in purely automated political decisions.
They say European AI tools should be prioritised, particularly within EU institutions. To this end, the text says that the EU should scale up “European technology” and ensure strategic autonomy across the AI value chain.
Technologies with global security and societal implications require an international agreement, modelled on nuclear non-proliferation, with the EU taking a leading role. Safeguards must be built alongside AI, but without unnecessarily hampering innovation or competitiveness.
Artificial intelligence increasingly shapes political communication, electoral processes, public discourse and decision-making.
MEPs therefore called for a systematic parliamentary assessment of risks as well as opportunities of AI and for a reform of the European electoral law. The Charter of Fundamental Rights should include new rights, such as the protection of personal identity and likeness and algorithmic transparency, they say.
The report proposes a budget-neutral administrative unit – the “European Parliament AI observatory” – to support the work of Parliament committees in tasks such as ex post evaluation of AI-related legislation and analysis of AI’s impact on the Union’s institutional balance and democratic processes.
The rapporteur on the resolution, Manolis Kefalogiannis, said: “AI does not progress linearly. It advances in leaps, and Europe must take the lead in shaping it. To paraphrase Abraham Lincoln: By humans, for humans, with humans. So that AI does not become the last invention that humans will ever need to create.”
(Photo via Von der Leyen’s page on X)