The European High Performance Computing Joint Undertaking (EuroHPC) selected seven proposals Tuesday to establish and operate the first Artificial Intelligence Factories across Europe.
This is a major milestone for Europe on the road to building a thriving ecosystem to train advanced AI models and develop AI solutions. “Using European supercomputers, we will enable AI start-ups to innovate and scale up,” said European Commission vice-president Henna Virkkunen: “Now we are ready to lead with the right infrastructure in our ambition for the EU to become the AI continent.”
The first AI Factories will represent a €1.5 billion investment, combining national and EU funding. Half of this amount will be funded by the EU through the Digital Europe Programme for AI infrastructure and Horizon Europe for AIF services. The selected AI Factories will be hosted at leading 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 Member States and two EuroHPC participating States. Portugal, Romania and Türkiye have joined the BSC AIF; Austria and Slovenia have joined the ITA4LIA; and Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Norway and Poland have joined the LUMI AIF.
Five of the selected 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.
The AI Factories in Spain and Finland will also feature an experimental platform, providing a cutting-edge infrastructure for developing and testing innovative AI models and applications, and fostering collaboration across Europe.
These AI Factories will more than double EuroHPC computing capacity, addressing specific need and boosting the European capabilities in AI. They will be deployed in 2025-2026.
Other EU Member States have shown interest in either joining the newly selected AI Factories or creating new AI Factories. The next cut-off date for Member States to submit further proposals on AI Factories is 1 February 2025.
