Why we are building it
The campus is designed for Europe's fast-growing demand for sovereign AI compute, AI cloud services and industrial-scale inferencing.
VOLT believes AI compute will become one of the defining strategic industries of the coming decades, comparable to ports, airports and energy infrastructure in earlier industrial eras. Compute capacity increasingly determines a country's ability to innovate, compete and safeguard its digital autonomy.
The unveiling. Han de Groot unveiled the Rotterdam AI Gigafactory Campus at the 2026 Annual Port Congres, sharing the vision for bringing industrial-scale AI compute to the Netherlands and the Port of Rotterdam.
Europe's compute gap
AI is becoming a foundational layer of the economy, but most of the world's AI compute sits outside Europe. That creates a growing dependency on foreign providers for compute, cloud capacity, model deployment and the economic value AI will create.
~95%
of global AI compute capacity sits outside Europe. Europe holds only around 5%.
Sources: Epoch AI, 2025; A Transformative AI Strategy for Europe, 2026
What is an AI Gigafactory?
An industrial-scale AI compute campus that produces compute capacity for AI models, applications and agents: the physical layer behind modern AI.
Why Rotterdam
One of Europe's largest industrial and energy hubs, with large-scale existing grid infrastructure, proximity to offshore wind and room to expand. Developed in partnership with Eneco, aligning AI growth with Europe's sustainability ambitions.
Connected to more than 1,000 networks, the AMS-IX and NL-ix ecosystems, major subsea cable and fibre routes, and sub-10 ms latency to Europe's major metropolitan regions.
Ecosystem approach
The campus connects public and private partners to strengthen Europe's broader AI capabilities.
Broad strategic recognition
"De AI Gigafabriek moet er komen."
"The AI Gigafactory must happen."
The Wennink Report identified the Rotterdam AI Gigafactory as one of the strategic investment projects for the Netherlands' future economic and technological competitiveness.
In line with the report, the Dutch Government has expressed support for AI Gigafactories that are fully financed by the market, with policy focused on improving the conditions they need to succeed (Ministry of Economic Affairs, 31 March 2026).
Independent study · HCSS, The Hague Centre for Strategic Studies
Analysis · ABN AMRO, Julia Krauwer, April 2026
Compute and cloud for Europe. Tell us what you need and when, and our team will come back to you.