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Estonia is no stranger to frontier AI projects, already using the most modern tools in the education system and producing an impressive array of AI-first startups and scale-ups. Now, there’s more on this front, as Estonia has signed a cooperation agreement with Nokia to participate in a Nordic consortium developing sovereign AI infrastructure across the region, Justice and Digital Affairs Minister Liisa Pakosta announced today in Oulu, Finland.
The project currently includes Estonia, Finland, and Latvia, with ongoing negotiations to bring Sweden and Denmark on board. The initiative responds to the European Commission’s program supporting the development of European sovereign AI infrastructure—specifically, AI gigafactories—designed to reduce dependence on third-party computing resources.
For Estonia, the agreement means establishing an AI-ready data centre on its territory that would integrate with both existing Estonian and broader regional infrastructure. The facility would provide essential computing capacity to the public sector, research institutions, and private enterprises.
“We need very clear and rapid action to give our digital state development and broader economic competitiveness new momentum,” Pakosta said. “It’s important that we don’t just become AI users, but can lead in its development.”
Why local infrastructure matters
A fresh analysis titled “Estonia’s State Computing Capacity: Current State and Needs by 2030” reveals a massive gap between current infrastructure and future requirements. Estonia currently has approximately 214 graphics processing units (GPUs) available for science and public sector use. Under a moderate scenario, total demand will grow to 11,600 GPUs by 2030, a more than 50-fold increase.
The consortium identified four strategic imperatives for sovereign AI infrastructure:
- Data sovereignty: Processing personal and confidential information securely in Estonia without dependence on external service providers
- Resilience: Maintaining controllable and reliable resources when international cloud services may be limited
- Cultural preservation: Supporting development of Estonian language and culture-specific models and national services like Bürokratt
- Economic value: Creating stable access to computing resources that enables R&D activity in Estonia
Timeline and next steps
The European Commission is expected to announce the relevant support measure in early 2026, with project submissions scheduled for spring or summer 2026.
“This isn’t just about building infrastructure, but creating a platform for future AI services, including the necessary skills. Achieving sovereign computing capacity requires comprehensive ecosystem development, from developing Europe’s own hardware and software to shaping research and talent policy,” Pakosta emphasised.
