- Spain, Italy, Finland, Luxembourg, Sweden, Germany and Greece get the green light
- The European Union will finance half of the projects together with national funding
- More applications will be welcomed until February 2025
The European Union has done that announced €750 million in investments to establish AI supercomputers in seven locations on the continent.
The initiative is part of a wider joint €1.5 billion project, with the other half of the funding coming from EU member states, as part of an effort to take on US tech giants and become which becomes the EVP for Tech Sovereignty, Security and Democracy. , Henna Virkkunen, sees it as an ‘AI continent’.
As part of the announcement, we now know the seven chosen locations for AI supercomputers in Europe: Barcelona, Spain; Bologna, Italy; Kajaani, Finland; Bissen, Luxembourg; Linköping, Sweden; Stuttgart, Germany and Athens, Greece.
Seven EU AI supercomputers confirmed
The supercomputers in Finland, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg and Sweden will be deployed as ‘brand new AI-optimized world-class supercomputers’, with the Spanish and Greek sites receiving upgrades to raise their status.
By deploying the seven new supercomputers, the Commission hopes to more than double its EuroHPC computing capacity, with a planned rollout in 2025-2026.
“Today we are one step closer to setting up AI Factories. With the help of European supercomputers, we will enable AI startups to innovate and scale,” said Virkkunen.
“Now we are ready to take the lead in our ambition to make the EU the AI continent with the right infrastructure. We are on track to make the AI factories initiative a reality in the first 100 days of the new European Commission.”
The AI factories are part of a broader strategy in the European Union to encourage the development and deployment of AI in sectors where it can make a real difference, such as healthcare, finance and manufacturing. Other Member States have also been invited to submit proposals by February 2025.