The European Commission has opened the bidding to build up to seven artificial intelligence (AI) gigafactories across the European Union, in a scheme it said would mobilise more than €30 billion in public and private investment. The sites are meant to give companies, start-ups, research centres, universities and public administrations the capacity to develop, train and run advanced AI models. That body, together with 18 member states including Spain, will jointly buy access to the computing power of the sites eventually chosen. An earlier non-binding call for expressions of interest drew 76 submissions covering 60 sites in 16 member states, far more than Brussels had anticipated. Member states have been signing up to the joint procurement agreement in recent weeks, with Warsaw confirming on July 28 that it had joined.