--- title: Five Months On, Europe's Tech Sovereignty Plan Takes Shape description: Where Europe's Chips Act 2.0, Cloud and AI Development Act and AI gigafactories stand in November 2026, and what comes next for you. author: Dr Marina Nani (Editor-in-Chief) date: 2026-11-01T09:47:31.841Z updated: 2026-11-01T09:47:54.094Z canonical: https://www.sovereignmagazine.com/article/eu-tech-sovereignty-five-months-on image: https://cdn.nanimediahouse.com/pexels-13153479.webp categories: Science & Tech, EU Focus content_type: News region: Europe publication: Sovereign Magazine about: - type: Organization name: European Union - type: Organization name: European Commission --- On 12th November, at 4pm Luxembourg time, the doors close on the largest computing tender Europe has ever run. Consortia from across the continent are preparing bids to build up to seven AI gigafactories, backed by up to €10 billion in EU and national money that the Commission expects to unlock at least €20 billion more from private investors. The tender is the most visible part of a wider plan. On 3rd June, the European Commission presented its European Technological Sovereignty Package: two new laws, the Chips Act 2.0 and the Cloud and AI Development Act, together with an Open Source Strategy and a roadmap for digitalisation and AI in the energy sector. Five months on, every part of the package is moving. ## Seven AI gigafactories, with bids due on 12th November The Commission launched the [AI gigafactories call](https://www.sovereignmagazine.com/article/inside-europe-s-30bn-progress-on-ai-sovereignty) on 30th July through the EuroHPC Joint Undertaking, with 18 member states signing up to buy computing power together. The call has two lots: up to four medium-scale gigafactories and up to three large ones. At full scale, each will run three to four times the computing power of JUPITER, the German supercomputer that is currently Europe's most powerful AI system. The rules keep the infrastructure European. Every site must be in an EU member state, each project needs an EU-controlled coordinator, and core operations and data processing must stay inside the Union. Projects can sit on one site or stretch across borders, linking facilities in several countries. Henna Virkkunen, the Commission's Executive Vice-President for Tech Sovereignty, called access to that scale of computing power 'a strategic necessity for Europe'. The Commission expects to award contracts in early 2027, with construction starting the same year. The gigafactories will join the 19 AI Factories already open across Europe, and start-ups, small businesses, researchers, industry and public bodies will all be able to use them. ## The Cloud and AI Development Act is in Parliament's hands The Cloud and AI Development Act sets out how Europe will build the capacity to match its AI ambitions. It aims to triple the EU's data centre capacity within five to seven years. It would create data centre acceleration zones where permits move faster, introduce a single EU framework for judging how sovereign a cloud or AI service is, and give public buyers a common procurement framework so they can use their purchasing power to back trusted providers. In the European Parliament, the Internal Market and Consumer Protection Committee leads the work, with Dutch MEP Reinier van Lanschot as rapporteur. He has said he hopes negotiations with member states and the Commission will conclude by the end of 2027. Parliament and the Council decide on the law together, as equal partners. ## Chips Act 2.0 is moving through both institutions The Chips Act 2.0 replaces the first Chips Act of 2023 and builds on the five pilot lines that law created. It covers a wider share of the [semiconductor value chain](https://www.sovereignmagazine.com/article/european-semiconductor-companies-chips-act), from chip design and packaging to memory, with faster approvals for strategic projects and stronger crisis preparedness. Member states have been working through the text since June. Under Ireland's presidency of the Council, compromise texts have followed one another: the first two pillars of the regulation in late September, and the third pillar in October. In Parliament, the Industry, Research and Energy Committee leads, with German MEP Oliver Schenk as rapporteur. The institutions have set themselves a political target of agreement in the second quarter of 2027. ## Open source and sovereign cloud are already at work in Brussels Some parts of the plan need no new law. The Open Source Strategy, adopted on 3rd June, builds openness and sovereignty criteria into the Commission's own digital investments, promotes open standards in public procurement and encourages public bodies to share and reuse the software they build or buy. The EU institutions are already buying sovereign cloud services. In April, the Commission awarded a contract worth up to €180 million over six years to four European providers and partnerships: Post Telecom with CleverCloud and OVHcloud, STACKIT, Scaleway, and Proximus with partners including Mistral. Each was assessed against the Commission's Cloud Sovereignty Framework, which looks at supply chains, security, technological openness and compliance with EU law. The European Parliament made its own move on the day the package was announced. From 4th June, the French search engine Qwant became the default on the Parliament's browsers, part of a wider effort to favour European, privacy-focused services, Reuters reported. ## The energy roadmap plans for the power data centres need New data centres need electricity, and the fourth part of the package plans for it. The Strategic Roadmap for Digitalisation and AI in Energy sets out how digital and AI tools can make Europe's energy system more flexible, efficient and resilient, and how data centres can be built into the grid rather than added to it. Industry groups, including the solar sector's trade body, are signing the Commission's declaration of intent on sustainable data centre integration. ## What comes next The next three dates are already set. Gigafactory bids close on 12th November, with awards expected in early 2027. The Chips Act 2.0 has a target of agreement in the second quarter of 2027. Parliament's lead negotiator on the Cloud and AI Development Act is aiming for a deal by the end of 2027. If you run a start-up, a research lab or a growing business that trains AI models, the gigafactories are designed to give you access to computing power on a scale few companies could build alone. If you sell cloud or digital services to public bodies, the new procurement rules and sovereignty framework will shape how those bodies buy. And if you simply want your data held and processed in Europe, under European law, the package puts that choice within reach.