European Union: technology profile

AI

The European Union pairs binding rules with public computing infrastructure. The AI Act entered into force on 1 August 2024. It became generally applicable on 2 August 2026. Its bans on prohibited practices have applied since 2 February 2025. Its obligations for general-purpose AI (GPAI) models, the large models behind chatbots, have applied since 2 August 2025. A voluntary GPAI Code of Practice, published on 10 July 2025, lists signatories including Mistral AI, OpenAI, Google, Microsoft and Anthropic.

The timetable changed in 2026. An amending law known as the AI Omnibus entered into force on 27 July 2026. It moved the rules for high-risk uses such as biometrics, employment and education to 2 December 2027. It moved rules for AI built into regulated products to 2 August 2028. It also added a ban on so-called nudification apps. The Commission said its AI Office and national authorities would begin enforcing the act on 2 August 2026. Transparency rules such as deepfake labeling started to apply that day.

The Commission's AI Continent Action Plan of 9 April 2025 builds on InvestAI. The Commission says that initiative will mobilize €200 billion for AI. The page gives no spending period. The Commission's AI Factories page, updated in August 2026, says 19 AI Factories and 13 antennas are being set up through the EuroHPC Joint Undertaking, the EU's supercomputing body. It also says a call for tenders has been launched for up to seven larger AI gigafactories, supported by up to €10 billion in EU and national funding. Among private developers, France's Mistral AI said in September 2026 that it had raised €3 billion at a valuation above €21 billion, TechCrunch reported.

Chips and hardware

The European Chips Act entered into force on 21 September 2023. The Commission says it has approved 18 state aid decisions for first-of-a-kind semiconductor facilities, representing more than €32 billion in public and private investment. The European Court of Auditors was more cautious. The EU's target is a 20% share of the global chip market by 2030. The auditors' 2025 special report concluded that the act was very unlikely to be enough to reach it. The report cited a Commission forecast of 11.7%.

On 3 June 2026 the Commission proposed a Chips Act 2.0 as part of a technological sovereignty package. Its measures include permitting decisions within 12 months and a Grand Challenges scheme backing chips it considers strategically important, including AI chips. The package also contains a proposed Cloud and AI Development Act. That act aims to at least triple EU data center capacity within five to seven years. Both were presented as legislative proposals, not adopted law. In equipment, the auditors list ASML among the major suppliers of chipmaking tools.

Space

EU space policy sits alongside the European Space Agency (ESA). ESA has its own membership of 23 states. The Commission proposed an EU Space Act on 25 June 2025. It would replace what the Commission counts as 13 different national approaches with common rules on safety, resilience and sustainability. As of October 2026 it was still at first reading in the European Parliament, according to Parliament's legislative tracker. The secure communications constellation IRIS² will use 348 satellites in low and medium Earth orbit, the Commission says. ESA member states approved €22.3 billion in contributions at a ministerial meeting in Bremen in November 2025. ESA called the contributions the largest in its history. As of October 2026, ESA's Ariane page lists the first Ariane 6 launch on 9 July 2024 and the most recent on 27 August 2026.

Energy technology

The EU, through Euratom, is one of seven members of ITER, the fusion experiment being built in southern France. The ITER Organization says Europe carries the largest share of construction costs, 45.6 percent. The organization schedules the start of research operation for 2034 and operation with deuterium-tritium fuel for 2039. On nuclear fission, the Commission adopted a small modular reactor strategy in March 2026. It aims for the first projects to be operating in Europe by the early 2030s.

What to watch

• Whether the Chips Act 2.0 and the Cloud and AI Development Act are adopted, and in what form.
• The outcome of the AI gigafactory tender.
• The December 2026 start of the nudification ban, then the high-risk deadlines of 2 December 2027 and 2 August 2028.
• An EU Quantum Act, which the Commission's quantum page, last updated in June 2026, says is scheduled for adoption in 2026.