BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union is offering 10 billion euros ($11.4 billion) in funding for firms to erect seven AI gigafactories as it seeks to close the AI gap with U.S. and China, the 27-nation bloc’s executive said on Thursday. The European Commission said it would like the public financing to draw an additional 20 billion euros ($22.8 billion) in private investment. The EU’s current computing power — delivered by a network of 19 AI data centers from Finland to Spain — will more than double when these seven gigafactories come online. China has an enormous electrical power capacity for data centers while the U.S. bags the lion’s share of private AI investment. France’s Mistral now runs the one of the largest AI data center in the EU so far at its campus in Paris.