Portugal invests €400,000 in AI - The National Artificial Intelligence Agenda will receive an investment of over €400 million.

The National Artificial Intelligence Agenda (ANIA) will receive an investment of over €400 million by 2030, mainly from European funds, according to information released by the Ministry of State Reform.

Council of Ministers Resolution (RCM) No. 2/2026, which approves the National AI Agenda, as well as the National Artificial Intelligence Agenda Action Plan (PAANIA) for the five years 2026-2030, was published in the Official Gazette and will come into force on 9 January.

Regarding the total cost of ANIA, it “will have an investment of more than €400 million in the period 2026-2030, mostly with European funds” and “it is a strategic investment made with budgetary rigour,” as indicated by the ministry headed by Gonçalo Matias.

The Government sees AI “as an opportunity to accelerate Portugal’s competitive position, capable of generating an estimated increase of €18-22 billion to GDP over the next decade”.

The Deputy Minister and Minister for State Reform, Gonçalo Matias, has repeatedly stated that Portugal has unique conditions to take advantage of the opportunity offered by AI.

The ministry lists a solid and growing talent base, universities and research centres of excellence in technical areas, a renewable, stable and accessible energy structure, an expanding technological and start-up ecosystem, the ability to attract international talent, and a unique geostrategic location between three continents.

“Portugal can lead in strategic sectors and areas, using AI as a tool to accelerate economic growth and social well-being,” says the ministry.

This application, led by BPF - Banco Português de Fomento, is currently under initial review by the European Union under the EuroHPC programme.

“The installation of a gigafactory in Portugal is an important part of ANIA, as a tool for creating industrial capacity for AI (in addition to supercomputing capacity for research and SMEs/start-ups) and reducing external dependence,” says the ministry in a document on Q&A relating to the National Artificial Intelligence Agenda.

BPF’s application for one of the five European gigafactories “is one of the ways to achieve this measure. Portugal also has foreign private interest (for example, the StartCampus project is estimated to have 1.2GW of capacity when complete),” it adds.

Regarding the data centre, “we are finalising the National Data Centre Plan, which will be the strategic guide for accelerating this sector in Portugal” and will include “concrete measures such as the creation of zones with simplified licensing”.

The State has already invested around €10 million in specific AI use cases currently under development in the Public Administration, out of a total planned investment of €25 million.

The agenda focuses on Sectoral AI Centres, the first of which will be created in healthcare, “leveraging the work already developed at the Centre for Responsible AI, where AI has direct potential to improve patient care, support healthcare professionals, increase system efficiency and accelerate clinical innovation” and industry and robotics, "reinforcing the application of AI to manufacturing, with a direct impact on productivity, business competitiveness and the creation of skilled jobs".