Greece joins European AI Gigafactories initiative

Greece has joined the European initiative to develop Artificial Intelligence (AI) Gigafactories with €350 million from the Recovery Fund.

The funds have been transferred to the European High Performance Computing Joint Undertaking (EuroHPC JU) and provide the financial basis for Greece’s participation in investments in the new AI Gigafactories planned across Europe.

At the same time, Public Power Corporation (PPC), which has expressed initial interest in such an investment, is currently working on the form of a proposal it could submit for a project in Western Macedonia.

The move confirms Greece’s decision to seek a role in the next generation of major European AI infrastructure, even before the projects to receive funding have been selected. The €350 million was transferred on August 25, as provided for in Greece’s revised Recovery and Resilience Plan.

The official decision provides that the contribution can support an AI Gigafactory or other EuroHPC initiatives, including AI Factories, supercomputers, quantum computers and other investments in Artificial Intelligence, quantum technology or High Performance Computing (HPC). The €350 million has therefore been earmarked primarily to support Greece’s bid for an AI Gigafactory.

As far as PPC is concerned, both the category of project it could bid for and the structure through which it would participate remain open. According to information, the options under consideration include either one of the smaller or one of the larger AI Gigafactory categories envisaged by the European call.

If PPC opts to bid for one of the larger projects, it is considered more likely that it would form an alliance with other European companies and organisations with expertise, infrastructure or investment capacity on a comparable scale.

According to sources familiar with the matter, if PPC submits a proposal and it is selected, the €350 million already transferred by Greece to EuroHPC would constitute the national component of the financing and would be combined with a corresponding European contribution. If the funds are not used for an AI Gigafactory, the same decision allows them to be channelled into the other investment categories outlined above.

EU rules allowed member states to channel Recovery Fund resources to EuroHPC, provided that the transfer was completed in full and irrevocably by August 31, 2026. Greece completed the transfer several days ahead of the deadline.

The funding is separate from Pharos, Greece’s AI Factory, a project that is nearing completion and is expected to become operational shortly, based on the Daedalus supercomputer. AI Gigafactories are a separate and much larger category of infrastructure, designed for the development and training of the most demanding AI models.

EuroHPC published its official call for the new projects on July 30. As Naftemporiki has reported, the process paved the way for PPC to potentially submit a specific proposal for Western Macedonia, following its participation in the preliminary expression of interest process in 2025.

The call provides for two categories of projects. The first allows for up to four AI Gigafactories to be selected, with European funding of up to €100 million for initial development and an additional €400 million for expansion. The second covers up to three larger projects, for which the European contribution can reach €200 million in the first phase and a further €800 million in the second.

The European process allows consortia or Special Purpose Vehicles (SPVs) to participate, bringing together companies, investors, public-sector bodies and other partners. Structures involving entities from more than one member state are also envisaged, broadening the options for the consortium structure being considered by PPC.

The deadline for submitting proposals is November 12, 2026, and EuroHPC is expected to select up to seven AI Gigafactories in early 2027. Total public funding from the European Union and member states could reach €10 billion, with the aim of mobilising at least €20 billion in private capital.

PPC’s potential participation in this process is separate from the company’s plans for a 300 MW data centre in Western Macedonia. The two are separate investment projects.

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