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Lithuania and Croatia Want to Buy Compute From an AI Gigafactory Poland Doesn't Have Yet
Poland still doesn't know whether it will win the EU tender to build an AI gigafactory, yet neighboring countries are already lining up for its computing power: Lithuania formally, Croatia and the Czech Republic in talks. Deputy digitalization minister Dariusz Standerski says the deal will hinge on agreement between companies, not just governments.
Poland doesn't have a single AI gigafactory yet, and a line of regional customers is already forming for its capacity. Lithuania has formally signaled it wants to buy computing services from the planned Polish investment, Croatia is likely to follow suit, and the Czech Republic is in talks on a reciprocal basis, contingent on a joint business plan from the companies involved.
The investment itself is still at the bidding stage, not a done deal. Under the EuroHPC public-private partnership, the European Commission plans to select seven AI gigafactories across the EU in total: four mid-scale and three large-scale. Poland is bidding for one of the mid-scale gigafactories, and the EU tender to select the consortia that will build the individual facilities is expected to be announced in the coming days.
Who's lining up
Despite the tender still being undecided, interest in the computing power of the planned Polish factory is growing beyond the country's borders. Lithuania was the first to formally express interest in buying the services, building on earlier regional cooperation: the Polish gigafactory was originally meant to be built as part of a broader public-private partnership that also included Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, under a proposal called the Baltic AI GigaFactory submitted in June 2025.
Croatia, according to reports, will likely follow Lithuania's lead and also declare interest in using the Polish infrastructure. The Czech Republic is negotiating on different terms, reciprocity, which requires the companies involved to work out a joint business plan rather than just an intergovernmental agreement.
What will matter most is that the companies reach an agreement. If we come to terms at the government level... - Dariusz Standerski, deputy minister of digital affairs
How the financing works
The gigafactory's financial structure is designed to split risk between the public and private sectors. Poland and the European Commission are together set to hold 34 percent of the factory's computing capacity, 17 percent each, while the remaining two-thirds will be sold commercially on the open market by the private consortium building and operating the facility, including to countries like Lithuania and Croatia.
That model means the government's financial commitment also functions as a demand guarantee, a mechanism meant to convince private investors to take on a multibillion-euro construction project before the factory has even run its first computing cycle. Earlier government plans called for a Polish contribution of more than 135 million euros against a total construction cost of around 3 billion euros, which would make it the largest ICT investment in the country's history.
Dispute over EU tender rules
The road to the tender itself wasn't smooth. In late 2025, the European Commission changed its approach to building gigafactories across the EU, stripping member states of the ability to bid directly for a facility. Under the new model, business consortia compete in the EU tender, while states can only support the investments financially and guarantee demand for computing capacity.
A coalition of countries pushed back against the change, joined by Poland, France, Germany, the Czech Republic, Lithuania, Spain and Sweden. They argued that since AI gigafactories carry strategic importance for Europe's technological sovereignty, governments should have real influence over their shape, financing and location, rather than being limited to the role of demand guarantor.
What it means for Poland
For Polish companies and research institutions working on AI, the tender's outcome carries direct practical weight: local access to computing power on the order of tens of thousands of graphics cards, without relying on foreign data centers or clouds from overseas. The interest from neighboring countries also shows the stakes reach beyond Poland, Central Europe simply doesn't have enough of its own computing resources to meet the growing demand from companies and universities training AI models.
The final location and the makeup of the consortium that wins the EU tender should become known once the 15-week bidding period announced by the European Commission wraps up. Until then, the declarations from Lithuania, Croatia and the Czech Republic remain expressions of interest rather than signed contracts.
