Czechia is advancing plans to secure one of the European Union’s coveted AI Gigafactories, large-scale computing centres designed to position Europe as a global artificial intelligence contender, Euractiv reports.
Government AI Envoy Jan Kavalírek confirmed advanced negotiations with a private investor and selection of potential sites.
We are dealing with this daily. It’s developing very well. I still don’t want to say 100% that we will submit it, but we are very close.
The bid targets a share of the EU’s €20 billion AI Continent fund, though private investment will cover most costs under the bloc’s funding model. A successful bid would establish Czechia as a central hub in Europe’s AI infrastructure, providing computational resources for research, public services, and industry across the continent.
Lukáš Benzl, Director of the Czech Association of Artificial Intelligence, emphasised the facility’s transformative potential, stating that such a gigafactory would serve as a “motor for the AI economy.”
The bid faces competition from Germany and Denmark, both vying for the same Gigafactory tier. Denmark already operates Gefion, a top-ranked AI supercomputer with 1,528 NVIDIA H100 GPUs that placed 7th globally in storage performance.
Meanwhile, the EU’s initial seven AI Factories—smaller hubs in Finland, Germany, Greece, Italy, Luxembourg, Spain, and Sweden—excluded Czechia, highlighting the urgency of securing this higher-tier project.
The Gigafactory initiative requires complex financing, as the EU covers up to 35% of capital costs, with private investors shouldering the remainder and all operational expenses. Concurrently, Kavalírek is lobbying the EU to delay the AI Act’s 2026 implementation, arguing Czech businesses lack preparation time. He garnered preliminary support from France, Poland, Denmark, and Estonia for a two-year postponement.
