The Portuguese State with no direct stake in the future AI Gigafactory
The 200 million euros already allocated by the Government will support the infrastructure by buying computing capacity, with no “stake for the State in its capital”, an official source says.
Portugal is seen as a strong candidate to host one of the seven Artificial Intelligence (AI) Gigafactories that will be co-financed by the European Union. Yet, despite the Government’s commitment to invest 200 million euros in the initiative, the State is not expected to hold a direct stake in the entity that will run the infrastructure. National support takes the form solely of buying computing capacity, a scarce and much sought-after resource at present.
The clarification came from an official source at the Ministry for State Reform, in reply to questions from ECO, after the European Commission formally opened its public tender on 30 June. To the 200 million euros of national funds are added a further 200 million euros of European funds, a total of 400 million euros to make an AI Gigafactory in Sines a reality — that is, of course, if the national bid, expected to be made in alliance with Spain, is one of those selected.
AI translation from the Portuguese. First published in ECO on 5 August 2026.