Second wave of AI factories set to drive EU-wide innovation
Austria, Bulgaria, France, Germany, Poland, and Slovenia will host the newly selected AI Factories, supported by a combined national and EU investment of around EUR 485 million.
These six additional AI Factories follow the first selection of seven AI Factories by the European High-Performance Computing Joint Undertaking (EuroHPC JU) back in December 2024.
The factories will offer privileged access to AI startups and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), fostering growth and more effective scaling up. AI Factories has become a core pillar of the European Commission’s strategy for Europe to become a leader in AI, bringing together 17 Member States and two associated EuroHPC participating states.
The infrastructure and services provided by AI Factories are described as "essential for unlocking the full potential of the sector in Europe." Backed by the EU's network of supercomputers, these factories will bring together the key ingredients for AI innovation: computing power, data, and talent.
The goal is to enable AI companies, particularly SMEs and startups, as well as researchers, to enhance the training and development of large-scale, trustworthy and ethical AI models.
As announced by President von der Leyen at the AI Action Summit in Paris, the Invest AI initiative aims to mobilise up to EUR 200 billion of European investments in AI. This will include the deployment of several AI Gigafactories across Europe, which will be massive high-performance computing facilities designed to develop and train next-generation AI models and applications.