AI grants in Italy 2026: what actually exists for SMEs

The MIMIT fund for the development of artificial intelligence, blockchain and internet of things technologies opened its window on 21 September 2022 and closed it the day after, on 22 September, because the money had run out. Forty-five million euros committed in twenty-four hours. As of 13 September 2026 there is no record of a reopening, and the fund still sits at the top of almost every list of artificial intelligence grants a search turns up.

Anyone typing “AI grants 2026” into a search box is not doing academic research. They have a quote on the table and want to know whether somebody else pays part of it. The honest answer starts with an uncomfortable fact: Italy has no national rolling-window fund dedicated to the adoption of artificial intelligence by the companies that buy it. The decrees say so, one by one.

This article lists first what has ended, with the date against each entry, because that is the part that costs weeks. Then it moves to the routes that are actually open, and to the only one that can shift serious money on an AI agent project: the iperammortamento 2026, the enhanced depreciation regime, which the text of the law names in full and which you lose by signing the wrong contract.

TL;DR

• MIMIT fund for AI, blockchain and IoT: a budget of 45 million euros, window opened on 21 September 2022 and closed on 22 September when the resources ran out. No reopening on record as of 13 September 2026.
• The billion in the artificial intelligence law (article 23 of Law 132/2025) is equity and quasi-equity for companies that operate in the AI and cybersecurity sectors. A company adopting AI in its own processes falls outside the list of recipients, and there is no application to file.
• The 40,000 euro AI Ready voucher appears in no primary source. The only 40,000 euro figure that can be traced belongs to the self-employment incentives for the under-35s, which is a different measure.
• Iperammortamento 2026: the acquisition cost uplifted by 180% up to 2.5 million euros, 100% between 2.5 and 10 million, 50% between 10 and 20. Investments from 1 January 2026 to 30 September 2028, GSE platform open since 12 June 2026. Annex V names Agentic AI.
• Voucher Doppia Transizione 2026: in Marche, 70% up to 8,000 euros for micro and small enterprises, 50% up to 6,000 euros for medium-sized ones, submission from 10:00 on 30 September to 12:00 on 7 October 2026.
• Chamber of commerce AI vouchers: Como-Lecco until 31 December 2026 (grant of 2,800 to 8,400 euros), Varese until 30 October 2026 (1,400 to 8,400 euros, consulting from accredited providers only).
• MIMIT Voucher Cloud & Cybersecurity: a 50% grant up to 20,000 euros, but the supplier list closed on 27 May 2026 and the application dates have to be confirmed on the ministry page.
• The three conditions of the iperammortamento on an AI agent project: capitalisation as an intangible asset, interconnection, and a sworn appraisal with an accounting certification.

What no longer exists, measure by measure

This section is here so you can stop searching. Every entry carries the date on which it closed.

The MIMIT fund for artificial intelligence, blockchain and internet of things. Closed on 22 September 2022. The budget was 45 million euros, provided by article 1, paragraph 226 of the 2019 budget law and split into 25 million for AI-based projects, 10 million for blockchain and 10 million for IoT. Eligible projects ran from 500,000 to 2,000,000 euros, with a maximum benefit of 1,400,000 euros in a mixed form of grant and subsidised loan, and operational management assigned to Infratel Italia. The window opened on 21 September 2022 and a directorial decree of the following day closed it because the resources were exhausted. A directorial decree of 20 May 2025 amended the implementing rules, but no reopening is on record. It is worth adding something no list mentions: even while it was open, that fund financed industrial research and experimental development from half a million euros upwards, so it was never the channel through which an SME pays for an automation module.

The MIMIT IPCEI on artificial intelligence. Applications closed on 30 January 2026, under a notice published on 17 December 2025.

Transizione 5.0. Bookings closed in November 2025. In its place sits the iperammortamento, the measure the second half of this article is about. The full picture of the software tax credits, with the exact date of each closure, is in the 2026 software tax credit.

The supplier list for the Voucher Cloud & Cybersecurity. Closed on 27 May 2026. The measure is still live and company applications open in November, but the spend is eligible only where the supplier is entered on that list. Anyone who did not register by May cannot bill against the measure, and whether MIMIT will reopen the list has not been verified.

The billion of article 23. Risk capital rather than a grant. Law 132 of 23 September 2025, published in the Gazzetta Ufficiale on 25 September 2025 and in force since 10 October 2025, authorises investment of up to one billion euros in equity and quasi-equity risk capital, drawn on the venture capital support fund under article 1, paragraph 209 of Law 145/2018, through funds set up and managed by CDP Venture Capital SGR. The recipients are innovative SMEs with an operating site in Italy that operate in artificial intelligence, cybersecurity and enabling technologies, plus companies of any size in the same sectors to be promoted as national technology champions. A company adopting AI in its own processes stays outside that perimeter, and in any case there is no application to file: you get in the same way you get in with any venture capital investor. Nowhere in the full text of the law is there a grant or a tax credit for the companies that buy the technology.

The 40,000 euro AI Ready voucher and the 5% uplift on the tax credit for AI research. Both circulate on consultants’ sites and in several round-ups. No primary source confirms them. The only 40,000 euro figure that can be traced belongs to the voucher of the Piano Integrato Autoimpiego for the under-35s, which we wrote about in Autoimpiego and Resto al Sud 2.0, and which carries strict age and employment requirements.

Which artificial intelligence grants are genuinely open in 2026?

Six channels, and none of them is the national AI scheme people are looking for. Two are national, three are territorial and tied to your own Camera di commercio (chamber of commerce), and one is a tax measure, worth far more than the others above a certain project size.

Four notes the table leaves out, and they change the choice.

The chamber voucher is no single national call. Unioncamere has announced a programme of around 150 million euros across 2026-2029, but the budget, the percentages, the caps, the minimum investment and the dates are set by each chamber of commerce on its own, and not all of them take part. The “70% up to 10,000 euros” figure, paired with a 21 September 2026 deadline, circulates as though it were national. It belongs to one chamber’s call. In Marche the caps are 8,000 and 6,000 euros and the window runs from 30 September to 7 October. What falls inside article 7 and what stays outside it is set out in Voucher Doppia Transizione 2026.

The Voucher Cloud & Cybersecurity dates have to be confirmed before a plan is built on them. As of 13 September 2026 the sequence on record is pre-loading from 12:00 on 20 October 2026 and submission from 12:00 on 10 November 2026 to 12:00 on 20 January 2027, set by a directorial decree of 4 August 2026. This is the least solidly verified figure on this page: before scheduling anything, open the MIMIT sheet.

SIMEST is a loan to be repaid, with a co-financing share in grant form, and it opens on 21 September 2026 with a reserve of 200 million euros. The conditions, the list of eligible costs and the lower export requirement that applies to this SIMEST section are in SIMEST: 200 million for AI.

Two channels exist but serve another purpose. The EIC Accelerator funds companies taking their own deep tech innovation to TRL 6-8, with grants of up to just under 2.5 million euros and equity investment of 1 to 10 million, the last 2026 cut-off falling on 4 November. The MIMIT Sviluppo competenze measure, the skills development scheme, pays for training, but only for SMEs in Basilicata, Calabria, Campania, Molise, Puglia, Sardinia and Sicily, in a window running from 10 September to 21 December 2026.

Does an AI agent project qualify for the iperammortamento 2026?

Yes, and the legislator named it explicitly. Annex V to Law 199 of 30 December 2025, at letter dd), item 2, makes eligible autonomous artificial intelligence (Agentic AI) software, systems and platforms capable of carrying out complex tasks, orchestrating workflows and operating with automated decision-making capability inside business processes. Item 1 covers generative AI and Large Language Models, item 3 MLOps platforms, item 5 process mining. Letter gg) adds low-code and no-code platforms for process automation.

Eligibility of the asset is the easy part, and it is also the only part most guides cover. The three conditions below decide the outcome, and two of the three are won or lost before the contract is signed.

1. The cost has to be capitalisable as an intangible asset

The uplift works on the acquisition cost, for the purposes of depreciation instalments and finance lease payments only. A cost expensed in full in the year produces no instalments to uplift, so the benefit dissolves. Bespoke development that the client books among intangible fixed assets qualifies, and so does a perpetual licence; the monthly fee of a platform stays outside.

Precision matters on this point, because the opposite is what you read online. The implementing decree of 7 May 2026 contains no clause excluding SaaS by name: ineligibility follows from the mechanics of the relief rather than from a written prohibition. The practical result is the same, but knowing where the rule comes from changes the discussion when a contract mixes a capitalised licence with a recurring service, and the case-by-case assessment stays with the client’s accountant and with whoever signs the appraisal.

2. The asset has to be interconnected

Paragraph 429 requires the assets of Annexes IV and V to be interconnected to the company’s production management system or to the supply network. For an AI agent the condition is demonstrated through the data flow: which systems exchange information with the agent, with which record layouts, through which endpoints, in which direction. An agent that reads stock levels from the management system, opens an order line and writes the outcome back into the ERP leaves a natural trail of documentation to show. An assistant that lives inside a chat window and exchanges data with no company system gives the appraisal far less to verify, and that is worth knowing while the project is being designed, not once the invoice is out.

3. A sworn appraisal and an accounting certification are required

The supporting documentation is a sworn technical appraisal issued by a chartered engineer or industrial expert on the professional register, or alternatively an attestation from an accredited certification body, plus an accounting certification from a statutory auditor. The route runs through the GSE platform, open to advance notices since 12 June 2026 and to confirmation notices since 12:00 on 21 July 2026. The sequence of the three notices, with the deadlines and the 20% payment threshold, is described in the 2026 software tax credit together with the detail of the Annex V letters.

One clarification that counts on small projects: the iperammortamento is a general tax measure, so it does not consume the de minimis allowance, and article 10 of the Marche chamber call allows cumulation with general tax measures within the limit of 100% of the cost actually incurred. On the same investment the grant voucher and the uplift can in principle sit together. The check has to be made with your accountant, because the sum of the benefits cannot exceed the cost.

What none of these channels pays for

The monthly fee. It is the line item that kills more artificial intelligence projects than any other, partly because a subscription is the way artificial intelligence is most often sold.

Measure by measure:

• Iperammortamento: the periodic fee of a subscription platform, for the mechanics described above. Websites and standalone e-commerce are out as well, since Annex V contains them in one form only, that of supply chain management systems.
• Voucher Doppia Transizione, article 8 of the Marche call: company websites, web advertising, SEO and SEM, basic IT (PCs, notebooks, tablets, smartphones, non-3D printers), fees and licences for software the company already holds at the time of the application together with its ordinary maintenance, support and assistance services for adjustments to legal requirements, and any spend incurred before the application is filed.
• Voucher Cloud & Cybersecurity: products similar to those already in use, version updates without substantial improvements, extensions of existing licences, and training costs.
• Article 23 of Law 132/2025 and the CDP Venture Capital funds: no supply of any kind. That money is risk capital for whoever develops technology, not cash for whoever buys it.

One line on compliance, because it is the question that arrives immediately afterwards. In the chamber call, support services for adjustments to legal requirements are excluded, so a project presented as AI Act or NIS2 compliance does not get through, while implementing a management system to ISO/IEC 42001 or ISO/IEC 27001 falls among the eligible consulting services. The difference lies in how the engagement is titled and described, and it is a substantial one.

The mistakes made before the application is even filed

1. Trusting a list with no dates against it. This is the mistake that generates all the others. In this field a measure without an opening and a closing date is incomplete information.

2. Reading article 23 as a grant. The billion exists, the conditions for receiving it concern whoever develops and sells AI technology, and no user company can file an application on that channel.

3. Invoicing before the chamber application is filed. In Marche only costs incurred from the date of submission onwards are eligible. A deposit invoice dated the day before is worth nothing.

4. Discovering the supplier constraints when it is too late. On the Voucher Cloud & Cybersecurity the supplier list closed on 27 May 2026, almost six months before client applications open. On the chamber voucher, for consulting and training alone, the supplier has to fall into a qualified category or self-certify through Form C at least three engagements delivered over the past three years for different clients.

5. Taking a chamber figure for a national one. Percentages, caps and deadlines change from chamber to chamber, and your own chamber’s call is the only document that counts.

6. Signing the contract before deciding how it lands in the accounts. This is the point worth more money than all the others put together, and it is the subject of the closing section.

Obsidian Technologies handles the technical side of the application: the quote in the form the call requires, the technical description of the project, the cost items kept separate as the reporting demands, and the information needed to work out which channel each part of the work falls under.

FAQ

Is there a national grant scheme for artificial intelligence in 2026?

No. As of 13 September 2026 no national rolling-window fund dedicated to the adoption of artificial intelligence by user companies is active. The MIMIT fund for AI, blockchain and IoT had one single window, one day long, closed on 22 September 2022 when the resources ran out. The grant channels available are run by chambers of commerce or are sector-specific.

Who gets the billion in the artificial intelligence law?

Companies that operate in artificial intelligence, cybersecurity and enabling technologies, in the form of equity and quasi-equity investment made through funds managed by CDP Venture Capital SGR. A company buying artificial intelligence for its own processes falls outside the recipients, and no application procedure exists.

Does the 40,000 euro AI Ready voucher exist?

It appears in no primary source. The only 40,000 euro figure traceable in this field belongs to the voucher of the Piano Integrato Autoimpiego reserved for the under-35s, which is a different measure with age and employment requirements of its own. The same goes for the supposed 5% uplift on the tax credit for research in artificial intelligence.

Is a monthly subscription to an AI agent eligible?

Not under the iperammortamento, because the uplift works on depreciation instalments and a periodic fee generates none. For subscription services the channel provided is the MIMIT Voucher Cloud & Cybersecurity, where SaaS and cloud services are eligible costs in writing, with the constraint that the supplier be on the ministerial list that closed on 27 May 2026.

Can I combine the chamber voucher and the iperammortamento on the same project?

In principle yes. Article 10 of the Marche call allows cumulation with general tax measures that do not constitute State aid, within the limit of 100% of the costs actually incurred, and the iperammortamento is a general tax measure that does not consume the de minimis allowance. The check has to be made case by case with your accountant.

What is the chamber voucher actually worth on an artificial intelligence project?

In Marche the cap is 8,000 euros for a micro or small enterprise, reached with around 11,400 euros of eligible spend. It is a first-module or proof-of-concept ticket. On a 60,000 euro project the lever that really moves the numbers is the iperammortamento.

Is an appraisal needed even when only software is being bought?

Yes. Access to the iperammortamento requires a sworn technical appraisal and an accounting certification whether the asset is tangible or intangible, together with the notices on the GSE platform. The appraisal has to be able to verify interconnection, so the documentation of the data flow has to be produced during the project.

When does the information on this page expire?

Soon, which is why every entry carries its date. The Marche chamber window lasts seven days and runs as a rolling window in chronological order over 1.5 million euros: early exhaustion is a concrete prospect. The Voucher Cloud & Cybersecurity dates are flagged as needing rechecking. Before committing money, open the page of the body that runs the measure.

Subscription or licence, and why it is decided before signing

An AI agent sold as a monthly subscription becomes, in the accounts, an operating cost for the client. An operating cost generates no depreciation instalments, and without depreciation instalments the 180% uplift has nothing to apply to. The identical piece of work, sold as bespoke development or as a licence the client books among intangible fixed assets, with any maintenance fee kept separate and invoiced apart, keeps its access to the relief.

On a 60,000 euro project capitalised in the accounts, the 180% uplift brings an additional 108,000 euros into deduction across the depreciation schedule. On the same project sold at 2,000 euros a month, the same company deducts the fee and stops there. It is a difference born of one line in a contract, and that line gets written once.

The three questions to take to your accountant before signing are these: whether the development portion can be capitalised among intangible fixed assets, whether the interconnection with company systems is described in a way an appraisal can verify, and whether the payment schedule supports the 20% of the acquisition cost that the GSE asks to be evidenced. Three yeses make the paperwork an administrative step. Three noes leave a project eligible on paper and unusable in practice.

If you are weighing up an AI agent or integration project and want to know which channel each line of the quote falls into before moving any paper, get in touch: half an hour is enough to say which parts can be capitalised and how they need to be described. The work in question is what the AI agents and AI integration with your ERP pages describe.

Sources: the MIMIT page for the fund for artificial intelligence, blockchain and internet of things, the text of Law 132/2025 in the Gazzetta Ufficiale, the page on the new Transizione 5.0 plan and the iperammortamento, the Voucher Doppia Transizione 2026 call of the Marche Chamber of Commerce and the Voucher Cloud & Cybersecurity page. Information verified against the legal texts and the agency pages on 13 September 2026: rolling windows can close for exhaustion of funds at any moment, and the dates flagged as needing confirmation have to be read on the agency page before committing spend.