EU makes a push to boost European AI innovation
The European High Performance Computing Joint Undertaking (EuroHPC) has selected seven proposals to establish and operate the first AI Factories across Europe.
The EU is taking a big step towards realising President Ursula von der Leyen's commitment to setting up the first AI Factories.
The first AI Factories will involve a €1.5 billion investment, combining EU and national funding. Half of this will come from the Digital Europe Programme for AI infrastructure and Horizon Europe for AI services.
"Today we are one step closer to setting up AI Factories. Using European supercomputers, we will enable AI start-ups to innovate and scale up. Now we are ready to lead with the right infrastructure in our ambition for the EU to become the AI continent. We are on track to make the AI factories initiative a reality in the first 100 days of the new European Commission," says Henna Virkkunen, Executive Vice-President for Tech Sovereignty, Security and Democracy, in a press release.
These factories will be located at top research and technology hubs across Europe:
- Barcelona, Spain: “BSC AIF” at the Barcelona Supercomputing Centre
- Bologna, Italy: “IT4LIA” at CINECA - Bologna Tecnopolo
- Kajaani, Finland: “LUMI AIF” at CSC
- Bissen, Luxembourg: “Meluxina-AI” at LuxProvide
- Linköping, Sweden: “MIMER” at the University of Linköping
- Stuttgart, Germany: “HammerHAI” at the University of Stuttgart
- Athens, Greece: “Pharos” at GRNET
The seven AI Factories involve 15 EU Member States and two EuroHPC participants. Portugal, Romania, and Türkiye joined the BSC AIF; Austria and Slovenia joined ITA4LIA; and Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Norway, and Poland joined LUMI AIF.
Five of the chosen hosting sites will deploy brand-new world-class AI-optimised supercomputers, namely in Finland, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, and Sweden. The AI Factory in Spain will result from the upgrade of the existing EuroHPC system, MareNostrum 5. In Greece, an AI Factory will be established and operated, associated with the DAEDALUS supercomputer, a EuroHPC supercomputer currently under deployment in Greece.
According to the press release, these future AI Factories will more than double EuroHPC computing capacity – boosting the European capabilities in AI. They will be deployed in 2025-2026.
