Access to EU computing: AI Factories, AI Gigafactories and EuroHPC

The legal framework

Status and the texts

The European High Performance Computing Joint Undertaking (EuroHPC) was set up by Council Regulation (EU) 2021/1173 of 13 July 2021 (OJ L 256 of 19 July 2021). It has been amended twice:

• Council Regulation (EU) 2024/1732 of 17 June 2024 added the AI Factory pillar and AI-optimised supercomputers.
• Council Regulation (EU) 2026/150 of 16 January 2026, published on 19 January 2026 and in force since 20 January 2026, added AI Gigafactories and a quantum technologies pillar.

The consolidated text of 20 January 2026 brings these together. It is a documentation tool; the versions in the Official Journal are authentic.

The Union's financial contribution to the Joint Undertaking is up to EUR 4 122 300 000, to be at least matched by the Participating States. It comes from Horizon Europe, the Digital Europe Programme and the Connecting Europe Facility (Article 5(1), as replaced by Regulation 2026/150).

Key terms

• An AI Factory is a centralised or distributed entity that provides an AI supercomputing service infrastructure: an AI-optimised supercomputer or AI partition, an associated data centre, dedicated access and AI-oriented services, and it pools talent (Article 2, point (3b)).
• An AI Gigafactory is a large-scale facility able to handle the complete lifecycle of very large AI models, from development to large-scale inference, including secure cloud access environments and sustainable energy and water supply (Article 2, point (3c)).
• An AI Gigafactory Consortium is a group of eligible legal entities, or a new legal entity, set up to establish and operate an AI Gigafactory, established in the Union for at least five years (Article 2, point (3d)). Its Coordinator must be incorporated and headquartered in the Union and controlled by Union entities or persons (Article 2, point (3e)).

Who is concerned

• Users: researchers, start-ups, SMEs, scale-ups, industry and public bodies that need computing time for AI.
• Hosting entities of supercomputers and AI Factories, usually national supercomputing centres.
• Consortium partners in an AI Gigafactory, including technology infrastructure suppliers.
• Suppliers of supercomputers, processors and data centre components.

Example: a Belgian start-up training a language model for legal documents needs several weeks of GPU time. It can apply for access to the Union's share of computing time on an AI Factory, free of charge for private innovation activities of SMEs where the access conditions provide for it.

The rules, article by article

AI-optimised supercomputers (Article 12a). The Joint Undertaking acquires and owns them. The Union covers up to 50% of acquisition costs and up to 50% of operating costs, including AI-oriented services. The rest is borne by the hosting Participating State. Supplier selection must address supply chain security, and the Governing Board may limit supplier participation for security reasons under the Digital Europe Programme Regulation. The machines are located in the Union.

Hosting AI Factories (Article 9). Additional selection criteria apply for AI-optimised supercomputers, such as proximity to a data centre, plans to serve the AI start-up ecosystem, and cooperation with other AI Factories (Article 9(5)). An existing hosting entity may apply to become an AI Factory (Article 9(5a)). The hosting entity must create a one-stop shop for users, including start-ups, SMEs and scientific users (Article 9(6a)).

Use and access (Article 16). EuroHPC supercomputers are open to public and private users. Except for industrial-grade machines, they are used primarily for publicly funded research and innovation, public sector applications and private innovation of SMEs, start-ups and scale-ups (Article 16(1), as replaced in 2026). AI-optimised machines serve primarily the development, testing, evaluation and validation of large general-purpose AI models and emerging AI applications (Article 16(1a)). Access conditions include dedicated access for start-ups and SMEs. Only proposals for trustworthy and ethical AI in line with Union values are eligible (Article 16(2a)). Users must reside, be established or be located in a Member State or a country associated to Digital Europe or Horizon Europe (Article 16(4)).

Allocation and price (Articles 17 and 18). The Union's share of access time on an AI-optimised supercomputer is proportional to its financial contribution and cannot exceed 50% (Article 17(1)). That share is free of charge for public sector users, for industrial users in projects funded by Horizon Europe or Digital Europe, for holders of a Seal of Excellence, and for private innovation activities of SMEs where appropriate. Allocation follows a fair and transparent peer review after continuously open calls (Article 17(6)). Commercial use of the Union's share is pay-per-use at market prices and limited to 20% of the Union's access time (Article 18).

Open science (Article 17(7)). Except for SME users undertaking private innovation activities, users must adopt an open science approach to disseminating knowledge gained through access, in line with Article 14 of the Horizon Europe Regulation. This is the point most often missed. A larger company or a research partner that obtains free computing time may have to share results.

AI Gigafactories (Article 12b, inserted by Regulation 2026/150).

• Location and partnership. An AI Gigafactory is located in a Member State that participates in the Joint Undertaking. It is a partnership between the Union and one or more Participating States, through the Joint Undertaking, and a consortium, under a Hosting Agreement (Article 12b(1)).
• Eligibility. Participation of entities from non-participating states can be restricted or excluded on strategic or security grounds (Article 12b(3)).
• Selection. Gigafactories are selected through a joint procurement and a call for expression of interest. The Member State must commit its share before the call (Article 12b(4)). Criteria include technical quality, security, energy efficiency, impact, Union added value and financial viability, with due diligence by an accredited financial institution (Article 12b(19)).
• Money. The Union covers up to 17% of the capital expenditure on the computing infrastructure, or buys access time of equivalent value. Participating States at least match it. The consortium pays the rest and the operating costs (Article 12b(5)). An AI Factory can scale up into a Gigafactory, with earlier support counted (Article 12b(6)).
• Ownership and access. The Joint Undertaking owns the part matching the Union contribution for at least five years (Article 12b(12)). Access time is proportional to contributions (Article 12b(13)). The Union's share is free for public bodies, for industrial users in Union-funded research and innovation, and for private innovation of SMEs and scale-ups (Article 12b(15)).
• Open models. Union access time may give free access to projects developing open frontier AI models, selected through an open competition. Those models are made widely available to public authorities and the scientific and business communities (Article 12b(11)).
• Hosting Agreement. It is governed by Union law, supplemented by the law of the host Member State. It sets ownership, governance, access, service levels, liability and conflict-of-interest safeguards for technology suppliers in the consortium. It also contains an arbitration clause giving the Court of Justice jurisdiction (Article 12b(17)). A public governance body must approve access deals with third-country entities that raise concerns, changes of ultimate control and relocation of critical assets (Article 12b(18)).
• Suppliers. If the consortium does not include its own technology suppliers, it selects them by fair and transparent tender that addresses supply chain security (Article 12b(20)).

Proposed: computing support for frontier AI. The proposed Cloud and AI Development Act, COM(2026) 502, would add "frontier AI priority projects" involving at least three Member States (Article 8). The Union and Member States would allocate sufficient AI computing resources to them, and the Union would at least match Member State contributions (Article 9). This is a proposal and does not apply yet.

In practice

Before you apply for access, read the access conditions of the call. Check which category you fall into: free access for SMEs' private innovation, free access in a Union-funded project, or paid commercial access. The category decides price, priority and your open science duties.

Protect your IP. If you are not an SME doing private innovation, Article 17(7) requires an open science approach. Decide in advance what you will publish, and file patent applications or secure trade secrets first. In a consortium, the partners' IP and the dissemination rules of the funding programme meet. Write that down in the consortium agreement.

Mind your data. Training data you bring to a shared machine stays subject to the GDPR and to your licences. Check that your data licences allow processing on third-party infrastructure.

For consortium partners in a Gigafactory, the Hosting Agreement drives the contract. Expect Union law, an arbitration clause in favour of the Court of Justice, public approval of control changes, and conflict-of-interest safeguards for suppliers. Coordinate the consortium agreement with these terms, including liability between hosting entities in multi-site, multi-country set-ups, where each hosting entity is severally responsible to the Union for the contribution it receives (Article 12b(2)).

A worked example: a Flemish scale-up and a university apply together for AI Factory time to train a model for materials research. The scale-up qualifies as an SME, the university does not. The partners agree that the university's publications are delayed until the scale-up has filed its patent application, and that the shared model weights stay with the scale-up under a licence to the university for research.

Frequently asked questions

Is access to AI Factories free?

The Union's share of access time is free for public sector users, for industrial users in projects funded by Horizon Europe or Digital Europe, for Seal of Excellence holders and, where appropriate, for SMEs' private innovation activities. Commercial use is paid at market prices and capped at 20% of the Union's access time.

Must we publish what we develop with free computing time?

Users other than SMEs doing private innovation must follow an open science approach, under Article 17(7). The Governing Board sets the detailed rules. Protect patentable results before you disseminate.

Can a non-EU company take part in an AI Gigafactory?

Participation of entities from non-participating states can be restricted or excluded for strategic or security reasons. The restrictions do not apply in principle to entities from countries that have signed an AI Gigafactory Cooperation Agreement or similar agreement with the Union (Article 12b(3)). The Coordinator must be incorporated, headquartered and controlled in the Union.

Who owns an AI Gigafactory?

The consortium invests most of the money. The Joint Undertaking owns the part matching the Union contribution for at least five years, after which ownership is transferred or extended as the Hosting Agreement provides.

How this connects

Our R&D grants and subsidies team helps you combine computing access with funding, and our commercial contracts and transactions team drafts consortium and access agreements. We prepare those agreements with Document Studio, our proprietary document analysis and development system, and test incoming terms with the clause library and risk review.

Cited provisions: Council Regulation (EU) 2021/1173, Articles 2, 5, 9, 12a, 12b, 16, 17 and 18, as amended by Council Regulations (EU) 2024/1732 and 2026/150; proposal COM(2026) 502, Articles 8 and 9.

Key dates:

• 19 July 2021: EuroHPC Regulation published
• 19 June 2024: AI Factory amendment published
• 20 January 2026: AI Gigafactory amendment in force
• 31 August 2026: latest date for transferring Recovery and Resilience Facility allocations to the Joint Undertaking so that they count as meeting that Facility's deadline (Article 12b(8))

Related reading: AI regulatory sandboxes and real-world testing, the Cloud and AI Development Act, funding for AI and digital projects, Chips Act 2.0 and the Quantum Act and grants and tax incentives for IP in Belgium.