Czech Business Today

Jan Kavalírek, Deputy Minister and Czechia’s Government Commissioner for AI, leads Czechia’s efforts to boostinnovation, startups, and digitalization. He is driving the country’s proposal to host a major AI Gigafactory near Prague, aiming to position Czechia and the CEE region as a hub for Europe’s AI leadership. In the following interview, he shares his insights on Europe’s AI strategy and the steps to turn this vision into reality.

The European Commission recently published the Apply AI Strategy. How do you assess it, and what does it mean for Czechia and the CEE region?

I truly welcome the recently published Apply AI Strategy as another promising step forward in AI promotion. It sends a strong message that AI has should be a strategic priority and it sets out a clear plan to boost our technological sovereignty and productivity. It introduces the “AI First” principle, calling to actively explore AI integration, and it highlights key application sectors. Therefore, we view Apply Ai Strategy as a solid coordination framework, which is also very much in line with the objectives of our Czech National AI Strategy, which we updated last year.

In my perspective, our vision for the European Union has to be nothing less than to become a global leader in AI and technology. Not just being great at using the AI systems that have been created by others, but to become leaders in developing the systems of our own and in their broad practical adoption. To achieve this and to really close the current technological gap that we have to other superpowers, we need to be bolder and more decisive. In this mission, Czechia is ready to work constructively with the Commission and other Member States to turn this shared vision into practical outcomes.

So, in your view, what are the most urgent steps the EU must take to become a true global AI leader?

First, we need to truly and significantly reduce bureaucracy that is just holding us back, in other words, simplify our digital regulatory environment. That is why we are calling for an ambitious Digital Omnibus and for a “stop-the-clock” for the AI Act. We want to be active in these efforts and therefore, we prepared a detailed position paper containing concrete proposals for simplifying EU digital regulation. We have shared this paper with fellow Member States and the Commission and presented it at the AI Board meeting.

Second, we must dramatically increase spending for R&D, attracting talents and upskilling and literacy programs. We have to create appropriate conditions for AI professionals and researchers to attract and retain talent in EU. Third, we must build a robust infrastructure for AI to have the capacities for training our own models. Therefore, we are a big supporter of AI Factories and Gigafactories.

Czechia is proposing to host one of the AI Gigafactory. What exactly are you proposing?

While building this essential computational infrastructure, the EU should also consider the geographical perspective and the impact on creating of the AI environment. This, together with the advanced AI ecosystem and plenty of AI’s finest researchers, leads us to our proposal that one of the 5 AIGF should be installed in the CEE region. CEE region has more than 100 million citizens, a vibrant innovation ecosystem, and some of the most promising technical universities and startups in the EU.

We see great AI potential in the CEE, and we would like to offer Prague as a perfect location that could serve this area. Therefore, we submitted our own proposal for an AI Gigafactory located near Prague. This facility is designed to be one of the most powerful AI compute hubs in Europe for training AI models, with up to 77 megawatts and the equivalent of 100 000 AI chips. This Gigafactory could serve the entire AI ecosystem, researchers, startups, industry and public institutions.

What the next steps with AI Gigafactory will be?

The European Commission is expected to launch the official call for AI Gigafactory proposals in January 2026. There are 60 candidate sites from the preliminary interest, which is really a lot. Therefore, I believe that it is important for the CEE region to present a unified and strong case, otherwise, we risk being passed over.

That is why Czechia suggests a coordinated joint proposal. I have already discussed it with many CEE member states and with the European Commission, which confirmed that a strong CEE proposal would be taken seriously — if we deliver it as a collective effort. So, the ball is in our corner now.

Any final message?

On behalf of Czechia, I can state that we are ready — with a concrete vision, an advanced AI ecosystem, and an infrastructure proposal that meets the criteria. We are ready to collaborate with our fellow Member States and with the European Commission to create the best possible environment for harnessing the power of artificial intelligence across the Union.