At a government press briefing on Thursday, Zoltán Tanács, Minister for Science and Technology, announced that Hungary will join European Union artificial intelligence initiatives, specifically the AI Gigafactory programme. According to the minister, artificial intelligence will shape the global economy in the coming years, while Europe currently lags behind in compute capacity.
Rationale behind the decision
Minister Tanács noted that more than half of the world’s AI compute capacity is concentrated in the United States, whereas Europe holds only a few percent. He added that ten years ago Hungary was among the regional leaders in high‑performance computing (HPC) infrastructure, but has since been overtaken by several Central and Eastern European countries, including Slovenia, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Poland, Bulgaria, Lithuania and Romania.
The EU launched the InvestAI programme in response, allocating 20 billion euros to support the creation of up to seven AI Gigafactories. The minister warned that the limited number of projects creates a “now or never” situation: countries excluded from these investments risk long‑term competitive disadvantage.
Hungary’s financial commitment and phases
The Hungarian government plans to allocate a total of 500 million euros to the programme over the long term. In the first phase, Hungary will join a Poland‑led consortium with an initial contribution of 25 million euros; within that consortium Poland contributes 100 million, the Czech Republic 100 million, Hungary 25 million and Lithuania 5 million euros. In a second phase, Hungary may provide an additional roughly 100 million euros as capacities are expanded.
Through the consortium Hungary aims to obtain a meaningful ownership stake and access rights in an AI centre with more than 100,000 GPUs. The minister stressed that participating in the joint effort would secure comparable compute capacity and international research links at roughly one‑sixth to one‑eighth of the cost of building a national gigafactory.
How the funds will be used
Tanács outlined that the resources will be allocated across several areas: financing Hungary’s share of the AI Gigafactory, providing subsidised AI access for companies and startups, creating a co‑financing fund for research and development grants, and continuing domestic HPC infrastructure upgrades.
The objective is to allow Hungarian companies, research institutions and public bodies to access large‑scale AI compute much more cheaply. Presented estimates indicate the public sector could receive compute resources worth $700,000–$800,000 per year, while the infrastructure could support several thousand active AI development projects annually for domestic companies and startups.
Expected impacts and regulatory compliance
The government says the investment could accelerate development across Hungary’s HPC, AI and quantum computing ecosystem over the longer term. The consortium model is also intended to safeguard data and technological sovereignty and to comply with EU regulatory requirements, including the AI Act and the NIS2 cybersecurity directive.
Minister Tanács emphasized that high‑performance AI infrastructure is not only strategically important but—based on international experience—one of the investments with the highest returns: one euro of compute infrastructure can generate hundreds of euros in economic output.
Next steps
According to the announcement, Hungary’s initial 25 million euro contribution to the Poland‑led consortium will be implemented in the near term, with further funding steps aligned to capacity expansion within the consortium. The minister cautioned that delaying the decision risks long‑term loss of competitiveness due to the limited number of gigafactory slots.
(The announcement was made at the government press briefing and is based on the minister’s presentation.)
