Seven consortia selected to establish AI factories which will boost AI innovation in the EU

This article is brought to you in association with the European Commission.

The European High Performance Computing Joint Undertaking (EuroHPC)  has selected seven proposals to establish and operate the first AI Factories across Europe. This is a major milestone for Europe in building a thriving ecosystem to train advanced AI models and develop AI solutions. The EU is now one step closer to realising President Ursula von der Leyen’s commitment to setting up the first AI Factories.

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.

Background

AI Factories will bring together the key ingredients that are needed for success in AI: computing power, data, and talent. They will provide access to the massive computing power that start-ups, industry and researchers need to develop their AI models and systems. For example, European large language models or specialised vertical AI models focusing on specific sectors or domains.

The AI Factories will boost new industrial uses of AI and give the opportunity for AI start-ups and SMEs to grow in key strategic sectors for the EU, including health and life sciences, manufacturing, climate and environment, finance, automotive and autonomous systems, cybersecurity, agri-tech and agrifood, education, arts and culture, green economy, and space.

AI ecosystems are expected to develop centered around the EuroHPC supercomputers, linking universities and academia, supercomputing centres, industry and financial actors. This will connect excellence and talent with the financial opportunities needed for business development and scale up.

Next Steps

Other 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 1February 2025.