“AI is the new steel.” Baltic AI GigaFactory for PLN 12.7 billion will ensure Poland's independence

There is great interest from business in the Baltic AI GigaFactory project, said Rafał Rosiński, Deputy Minister of Digital Affairs on Tuesday. He stated that he was not concerned about the financing of this project and assured that public funds were available for this purpose.

At the beginning of July this year. The European Commission adopted the initial application of the Ministry of Digital Affairs regarding the creation of the Baltic AI GigaFactory. The project connects Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia and assumes the creation of a Baltic gigafactory designed to support the development, training and implementation of very large AI models and applications on an unprecedented scale. According to the application, the gigafactory will cost EUR 3 billion, or approximately PLN 12.7 billion. 65 percent this amount is to come from the private sector, and 35 percent. – from the public sector, half of which (17.5%) is to be provided by Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, and the other half (17.5%) by the European Commission.

– The mood is positive. There is a lot of interest in the project from business, said Deputy Minister of Digitization Rafał Rosiński during the debate that took place at the Internet Governance Forum in Warsaw. This is how the deputy head of the Ministry of Digitization (MC) summed up the October “Partner Assembly” meeting on the project, which was attended by 150 partners who wanted to co-create the gigafactory.

Rosiński pointed out that he was not afraid of financing the project, and public funds were available for this purpose. He emphasized that the construction of the gigafactory is the responsibility of the Polish raison d'état and its creation is of key importance for building digital resilience. Rosiński added that, in addition to the MC, the following ministries are involved in the implementation of the project: finance, state assets, national defense and health.

– Artificial intelligence is new energy and new steel. Those countries that will be independent in this respect will decide about their future. Currently 90 percent We buy computing power from external suppliers, so it is also a matter of sovereignty, emphasized Anna Streżyńska, director of the Institute of Communications, where the gigafactory design office is located, during the panel.

As Streżyńska emphasized, each hour of gigafactory operation is “monstrously expensive”, so it will be necessary to determine the recipients of computing power in advance – both in Poland and abroad. “The entire mechanism must be preceded by real analyzes of the development of artificial intelligence in our region and beyond, but also analyzes that will indicate what else needs to be done to create a recipient at all,” Streżyńska pointed out.

The Director of the Institute of Communications emphasized that the state should also present business incentives so that Polish companies want to build their own solutions based on artificial intelligence and, consequently, use the gigafactory. Among the incentives, she mentioned regulatory facilitations and financial incentives.

According to Streżyńska, the key element in attracting private investors for the gigafactory is the country's capital commitment, i.e. “putting up real money”, which will be a signal that the investment is not too risky. The second important issue is ensuring the stability of the project, i.e. the energy environment, land, connections, simplified permits for the construction of AI infrastructure – said the expert.

Prof. had a similar opinion. Marta Postuła, vice-president of Bank Gospodarstwa Krajowego, who said that it is now necessary to decide who will be the recipient of the gigafactory's computing power, and the state should include it in its long-term strategy. According to prof. It is worth creating a special purpose vehicle that will start financing the project.

The vice-president of GBK also pointed out that the project should limit financing of entities from outside the European Union. She added that investors from the USA, China or Saudi Arabia should not be excluded, but at the same time it should be ensured that non-EU countries are not the majority shareholders of the gigafactory.

Stefan Kamiński, president of the National Chamber of Commerce for Electronics and Telecommunications, noted that the main customer, but also supplier of the gigafactory, will be the energy sector. He emphasized that the energy that will power the gigafactory must be able to handle high variability to exclude the risk of a blackout.

The panelists agreed that the key recipients of the Baltic Ai Gigafactory's computing power, in addition to energy, will also be the health and defense sectors.

The European Commission indicated on its website that artificial intelligence factories are dynamic ecosystems that support innovation, cooperation and development in the field of AI. The Commission considered their creation a priority and planned to launch the first factories in 2025. In December 2024, the EC selected the first seven locations, and in March this year – the next six. A total of 13 AI factories are to be built in the EU. In Poland, the first one is being built at the Cyfronet AGH Academic Computer Center in Krakow (Gaia AI Factory), and the second one, called Piast-AI, is to be built in Poznań.

According to the European Commission, artificial intelligence gigafactories are to be state-of-the-art, large-scale artificial intelligence computing and data storage centers, designed specifically for developing, training and implementing next-generation AI models and applications, e.g. models with hundreds of trillions of parameters.

In February this year the head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, announced that the EU InvestAI fund, with a budget of EUR 20 billion, will finance five artificial intelligence gigafactories in the EU. In June this year 16 Member States sent 76 initial requests on this matter.

At the beginning of July this year. The European Commission adopted the initial application of the Ministry of Digital Affairs regarding the creation of the Baltic AI GigaFactory. Its planned computing power is from 30,000 to 100,000. GPU. As MC reported at the end of September, the ministry, in cooperation with the Ministry of Funds and Regional Policy, proposed that, as part of the revision of the KPO, approximately PLN 426 million (EUR 100 million) would be allocated to the construction of AI factories and gigafactories in Poland.

October 30 this year A Partner Assembly meeting regarding the Baltic gigafactory project was held in Krakow. It was attended by representatives of MC and partners – enterprises interested in building and operating AI infrastructure in the region, universities, research institutes and public administration units.

The EC intends to invite countries to submit official applications for gigafactories at the end of 2025 (PAP)

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