The European Union (EU) has unveiled the InvestAI initiative, aimed at mobilising a total of €200bn ($206bn) to bolster investment in AI.
The investment, which includes new European fund of €20bn to support development of AI gigafactories, forms part of a Europe’s broader strategy to foster open and collaborative development of advanced AI models.
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The sum includes a recently announced €150bn from more than 20 international investors, with European Commission (EC) President Ursula von der Leyen now adding another €50bn from the bloc.
The InvestAI fund will finance four AI gigafactories across the EU which will be equipped to train the “most” complex, very large, AI models.
With around 100,000 “last-generation AI chips”, around four times more AI chips than current AI factories, the gigafactories will focus on training highly complex AI models to drive breakthroughs in domains such as medicine and science.
EU Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said: “This unique public-private partnership, akin to a CERN for AI, will enable all our scientists and companies – not just the biggest – to develop the most advanced very large models needed to make Europe an AI continent.”
The InvestAI initiative will feature a layered fund with varied risk and return profiles, with the EU budget mitigating investment risks for other partners.
The Commission’s initial funding for InvestAI is planned to be sourced from existing EU programmes with digital components, such as the Digital Europe Programme and Horizon Europe, as well as InvestEU.
The EU has previously announced the first seven AI factories in December 2024 and is set to reveal the next five.
The existing support for AI Factories, amounting to €10bn co-financed by the EU and Member States, represents the world’s largest public investment in AI.
Additionally, the Commission plans to establish a European AI Research Council to consolidate resources and explore the potential of data in supporting AI and other technologies.
Furthermore, an ‘Apply AI’ initiative is scheduled to launch later this year to accelerate the industrial adoption of artificial intelligence in key sectors.
