Bull and Foxconn partner to manufacture AI infrastructure in Europe
French computing company Bull and Foxconn have announced a strategic partnership to manufacture AI and cloud infrastructure in Europe. The collaboration combines Bull's AI systems design and go-to-market capabilities with Foxconn's manufacturing scale, with an initial investment exceeding EUR 120 million.
Under the partnership, manufacturing and initial testing will take place at Foxconn's facility in Pardubice, Czech Republic, before assembly, final integration and system-level validation at Bull's factory in Angers, France.
The systems – designed for AI training and inference workloads – will integrate GPUs and other accelerators, high-performance memory, storage and interconnect technologies, configured as standalone systems or rack-level deployments, according to a press release from the companies.
The target markets are European AI factory initiatives, neo-cloud providers, enterprises, research institutions and cloud service providers. Bull describes the initiative as a step toward sovereign AI infrastructure in Europe, where dependence on external markets for key AI components remains significant. The companies cite ING data showing Europe holds around 8% of global semiconductor manufacturing capacity, and McKinsey analysis placing Europe's share of key AI infrastructure segments below 5%.
"This partnership with Foxconn accelerates our transformation by positioning Bull as a key European player in AI and cloud systems, leveraging Bull’s technical leadership in HPC, with the ability to deliver the most advanced infrastructure at scale and with competitive time to market," said Emmanuel Le Roux, CEO of Bull. "By joining forces with Foxconn, we are taking a concrete step to deliver competitive AI infrastructure made in Europe while contributing to a more resilient digital ecosystem within Europe."
