Changes from plenary report to adopted text

(Consultation)

The European Parliament,

– having regard to the Commission proposal to the Council (COM(2025)0414),

– having regard to Article 187 and Article 188, first paragraph, of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, pursuant to which the Council consulted Parliament (C100204/2025),

– having regard to Rule 84 of its Rules of Procedure,

– having regard to the report of the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy (A10-0241/2025),

1. Approves the Commission proposal as amended;

2. Calls on the Commission to alter its proposal accordingly, in accordance with Article 293(2) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union;

3. Calls on the Council to notify Parliament if it intends to depart from the text approved by Parliament;

4. Asks the Council to consult Parliament again if it intends to substantially amend the Commission proposal;

5. Instructs its President to forward its position to the Council and the Commission.

COUNCIL REGULATION

on amending Council Regulation (EU) 2021/1173 of 13 July 2021 on establishing the European High Performance Computing Joint Undertaking and repealing Regulation (EU) 2018/1488

THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION,

Having regard to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, and in particular Article 187 and 188, first paragraph, thereof,

Having regard to the proposal from the European Commission,

Having regard to the opinion of the European Parliament,

Having regard to the opinion of the European Economic and Social Committee,

Whereas:

(1) Regulation (EU) 2024/1689 of the European Parliament and of the Council laying down harmonised rules on artificial intelligence (Artificial Intelligence Act) aims to improve the functioning of the internal market by laying down a uniform legal framework in particular for the development, marketing and use of artificial intelligence in conformity with Union values.

(1a) Regulation (EU) 2021/695 of the European Parliament and of the Council sets out the framework for the Union's spending on research and innovation, including the types of action and expenditure that can be funded within that framework.

(2) Since 2021, when the Council Regulation (EU) 2021/1173 was adopted, the field of artificial intelligence (AI) has seen enormous technical progress and become a highly strategic and contested domain globally. The European Union is at the forefront of efforts to support responsible innovation in AI, by guiding innovation, setting guardrails, and developing global governance.

(3) Large AI general purpose models have emerged as vital drivers of economic competitiveness and innovation. They become pivotal in enhancing productivity across diverse sectors and transform entire value chains, thus dictating future economic value capture. The next generation of frontier AI models are expected to unlock a leap in capabilities, towards Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) capable of tackling highly complex and diverse tasks, matching human capabilities, while potentially presenting new societal risks. Regions capable of developing and implementing these AI models sustainably, safely and at scale will lead in global innovation, promote trust, and attract premier talent. At the same time, sectors at the forefront of science and industry, such as agricultural technology, biotechnology, climate, automotive, defence, space and aerospace, demand substantial computing resources to undertake major AI-driven scientific discoveries and industrial innovations. Synergies between these activities and those undertaken by other Union programmes, such as the EU Space Programme, will be exploited, with appropriate safeguards in place to protect the strategic interests of the Union and its Member States.

(4) The most advanced AI Factories in Europe will be equipped with supercomputers featuring up to 25,000 advanced AI processors, allowing only to develop middle-range AI models. Significant investments are therefore needed to scale up Europe’s computing capacities and provide related services to serve the diverse, de-centralised and non-monolithic user ecosystem characteristic of innovative technologies in the Union, while establishing next-generation facilities that allow the development of frontier AI models.

(5) On 9 April 2025, the Commission launched the AI Continent Action Plan to position the Union as a global leader in AI. A core pillar of this strategy is boosting the Europe-wide infrastructure for training advanced AI models taking the 2024 AI Factories concept up to the next level and expanding access to such computing capacities throughout the Union. Therefore, a balanced geographical distribution of such facilities is considered as positively contributing to the fulfilment of criteria related to potential impact.

(5a) To ensure that SMEs, micro-enterprises and mid-caps can practically use AI Gigafactories, in proportion to their operational capacities and expected usage, their application and access should be facilitated and simplified to reduce administrative barriers

(6a) In accordance with the World Energy Outlook Special Report of the International Energy Agency entitled ‘Energy and AI’ the proliferation of AI-specific computing workloads is placing exceptional new demands on the power grid: globally, electricity consumption by data centres is projected to more than double from roughly 415 terawatt-hours (TWh) in 2024 to about 945 TWh by 2030. AI-driven server operations are expected to grow at approximately 30 % annually and will represent a major share of the increase. In that regard, investments and support measures must incorporate robust planning for grid interconnection, cooling infrastructure, demand management, and renewable supply integration. The risks of local grid strain, costly retrofits, and a balance with climate goals must be adequately considered.

(7) Strengthening the scientific and technological bases of the Union is increasingly vital for its long-term competitiveness and strategic autonomy. Therefore, it is more important than ever to maintain the Union's spending on research and innovation. Indeed, artificial intelligence has the potential of accelerating scientific discovery and enhancing research capabilities across all domains. It is therefore essential that AI private and public users, in particular SMEs, start-ups, scale-ups, micro-enterprises and research organisations, including those in non-for-profit or pre-competitive research within the whole Union benefit from world-class supercomputing infrastructures in order to sustain and advance Europe’s leadership in research and innovation. Given its startegic importance and substantial investment requirements, particular consideration should be given to the quality and security of its physical, IT and networking infrastructure.

(7a) AI Gigafactories should promote the development of products and services reflecting the ethical and legal principles of the Union

(8) The European Commission’s Competitiveness Compass, adopted on 29 January 2025, identifies strategic technologies including quantum technologies and high-performance computing as essential pillars to ensure Europe’s technological sovereignty, economic resilience, and global leadership. The Compass stresses the need for coordinated investments and ecosystem development across research, infrastructure, industry, and skills to strengthen the Union’s competitiveness in these fields.

(9) Complementing this, the European Quantum Strategy, ▌adopted in July 2025, sets out a comprehensive framework to accelerate quantum research, innovation, industrialisation, and deployment of quantum technologies and infrastructures. It aims to build a sustainable and competitive quantum ecosystem, covering computing, communication, sensing, and metrology, with a strong focus on skills development as well as on international cooperation. As the European Quantum Strategy transfers Horizon Europe Pillar 2 R&I funding for quantum activities, it should be ensured that quantum activities are sufficiently funded under the Joint Undertaking.

(10) In view of the policy importance ofthe establishment of AI Giga Factories in the Union , the amounts initially allocated from ▌ Digital Europe Programme and the Connecting Europe Facility should be increased to allow the Union to reach that objective. Furthermore, an additional contribution from Horizon Europe specifically earmarked for that purpose should be used to provide certainty regarding the offtake of the services provided by AI Giga Factories to researchers, innovators and startups. This will strengthen the business case for the AI Giga Factories, which in turn will enable consortia to unlock additional financing. All additional contributions mentioned should be in compliance with the applicable legal provisions and subject to budgetary availability.

(10a) A dedicated and ringfenced part of the additional Union contribution to the Joint Undertaking should be dedicated exclusively to research and innovation activities in the field of quantum technologies. Any transfers between that ringfenced budget and the budget available for high performance computing and AI activities should not be allowed. The Member States should be able to increase their contribution to the Joint Undertaking to support the research and innovation activities in the field of quantum technologies. Any such additional contribution should also be ringfenced.

(11) Given the rapid technological developments in the field and the adapting Union AI policy, possible significant additional Union financing for AI gigafactories could be required in the coming years. Considering this specific policy context, it should be possible to entrust to the Joint Undertaking additional Union funding going beyond the amounts set out in Article 5(1), subject to an economic impact assessment, clear description of the intended use of entrusted funds, as well as a timeline for implementation. Such additional contribution should be at least matched by the members of the Joint Undertaking other than the Union.

(12) In order to accelerate the development of AI Gigafactories across the Union, Member States may decide to use their remaining allocations under the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) to finance their national contributions to an AI Gigafactory. To this end, Member States should be permitted to provide contributions to the Joint Undertaking for the purpose of supporting AI Gigafactory projects.

(13) Additional Union contributions to AI gigafactories from other programmes, not listed in Article 5(1), should also be possible, through the signature of specific ad hoc contribution agreements, subject to commensurate contribution by one or more members of the Joint Undertaking other than the Union. A clear description of the intended use of entrusted funds, as well as a timeline for implementation shall be included in the corresponding contribution agreements in accordance with the relevant Commission work programme.

(13a) Since the large-scale deployment of high-performance computing systems and large-capacity AI infrastructures entails significant energy, water and other resource consumption, such infrastructures should be designed and operated in line with the Union’s climate-neutrality and energy-efficiency objectives, including renewable-energy sourcing, efficient cooling and waste-heat recovery.

HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION:

(1) Article 2 is amended as follows:

(2) the following point (3c) is added:

(3c) ‘Artificial Intelligence Giga Factory’ or ‘AI Gigafactory’ means a state-of-the-art large-scale facility , exceeding 100,000 advanced AI processors as referred to in the communication of the Commission of 9 April 2025 entitled ‘AI Continent Action Plan’, with sufficient capacity to handle the complete lifecycle – development, training, fine-tuning, and large-scale inference – of very large, AI models and applications, providing a supercomputing service infrastructure, which is composed of AI-optimised computing capacity, a supporting data centre infrastructure (including high-capacity storage and networking), dedicated secure cloud user access environments, and specialised secure AI-oriented support services for its advanced operations and is supported by an environmentally sustainable energy supply system.

(3) the following point (3d) is added:

(3d) ‘Artificial Intelligence Giga Factory Consortium’ or ‘AI Gigafactory Consortium’ means an association of legal entities duly incorporated in the Union coming together in a consortium for the purpose of establishing and operating an AI Gigafactory and specifying the respective roles and responsibilities of these entities for the lifetime of the AI Gigafactory, or a new legal entity established for the purpose of establishing and operating an AI Gigafactory, that has a legal form recognised in any Member State. The AI Gigafactory Consortium shall be established for a minimum duration of five years. One or more of the private partners of such consortium may be participating in the Private Members of the Joint Undertaking.

(4) the following point (3e) is added: