EU Launches Construction of Seven AI Megafactories Worth €30 Billion, Croatia in the Running
The tender is open, with 18 member states applying. Croatia participates in consortia, while a private €50 billion Pantheon center is planned in Topusko.
The tender is open, with 18 member states applying. Croatia participates in consortia, while a private €50 billion Pantheon center is planned in Topusko.
The European Union has officially launched a tender for the construction of seven large data centers for artificial intelligence development, with an estimated total value of €30 billion. The initiative, initially announced by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen as a project of five centers worth €20 billion, has been expanded due to significant interest from member states. Eighteen countries, including Croatia, have applied to host and co-finance the centers, although Croatia is not yet mentioned as a standalone host for a megafactory.
According to the published tender details, the plan includes the construction of four smaller AI centers equipped with between 25,000 and 75,000 specialized AI processors. In addition, three larger centers are planned, equipped with 40,000 to 100,000 chips. As reported by Financije.hr, companies or consortia responsible for the smaller centers can count on up to €1 billion in public funds, while larger projects are allocated up to €2 billion.
The European Commission will provide €5 billion from the EU budget, and host countries will contribute an equal amount. The remainder, about two-thirds of the total project value, is expected to come from the private sector, writes Forbes Croatia. Public funds must not exceed 35 percent of the total investment. So far, Brussels has earmarked €1 billion for the initiative, with an additional €4 billion planned from the upcoming seven-year budget framework starting in 2028. Forbes Croatia notes that negotiations on this budget are still ongoing, but the Commission claims to have alternative scenarios if part of the funds is not approved.
Croatia, along with Estonia, Hungary, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia, and Sweden, has so far joined consortia of other countries and is not competing for its own megafactory, according to Euractiv. Germany, Italy, Spain, Portugal, and Greece have applied to host the largest centers, while France, Poland, Finland, Denmark, and the Czech Republic are competing for smaller projects.
Independently of this tender, a private project called Pantheon is also planned in Croatia. This is a data center in Topusko, with an announced value of €50 billion, which should be completed in the first half of 2029. With an installed capacity of one gigawatt, it would consume between 20 and 40 percent of Croatia's total annual electricity consumption, comparable to the consumption of the entire city of Zagreb. Investors led by Croatian entrepreneur Jaka Andabak and American partners have purchased about 1,500 hectares of land for the project, and powering it will require building 280 kilometers of new transmission lines and a dedicated photovoltaic power plant with a capacity of about 500 megawatts.
According to Stanford University data, about 60 percent of advanced AI models are developed in the US, 30 percent in China, and Europe accounts for less than five percent. The existing network of 19 AI centers, co-financed by the EU since 2022, is no longer sufficient to develop a competitive ecosystem, writes Le Monde. The goal is to strengthen European technological sovereignty, although Brussels admits that in the initial phase it will still depend on American chip manufacturers like Nvidia and AMD. The European Commission hopes that other suppliers will join in later phases of infrastructure upgrades.
The high consumption of electricity and water for cooling raises questions about the sustainability of such centers. "We are asking bidders for a document explaining how they intend to apply technology in a sustainable and energy-efficient manner," the European Commission stated. Projects with the highest energy efficiency standards will be favored, and some experts are calling for stricter criteria, such as the use of low-carbon energy sources and a ban on diesel generators.
The European Commission is expected to select winning bids in early 2027, after which selected consortia will have 18 months for construction. The first megafactories could begin operations in mid-2028.
