Europe has chosen websites for seven “synthetic intelligence factories”: specialised analysis and improvement facilities utilizing the area’s strongest supercomputers. The factories shall be situated in Finland, Germany, Greece, Italy, Luxembourg, Spain and Sweden.
The interconnected community of factories will drive advances in AI purposes throughout numerous EU sectors, together with healthcare, manufacturing, power, local weather and finance. It shall be managed by the European Joint Undertaking for High Performance Computing, a company created to develop a world-class supercomputing ecosystem within the area.
The websites will double the EU’s knowledge capability
AI startups, small and medium-sized companies and researchers throughout the continent can simply entry computing assets, coaching and high-performance abilities by factories. The goal is to carry collectively the “key ingredients for success in artificial intelligence” that are computing energy, knowledge and expertise. Together, the seven factories will greater than double the EU’s knowledge capability by 2026.
Five of the websites will contain new supercomputers optimized for synthetic intelligence, whereas the one in Spain will contain the improve of an present EuroHPC system, MareNostrum 5. Likewise, the power in Greece shall be related to the DAEDALUS supercomputer at the moment utilized in Athens.
The factories in Spain and Finland may have a “experimental platform” designed particularly to develop and check frontier AI fashions.
Who will finance new AI factories in Europe?
The EuroHPC Joint Undertaking, the European Commission and particular person Member States will share funding for the seven factories, for a total of 2.1 billion euros. The EU can even present €100 million to help incubation and start-up actions, with the goal of attracting an additional €1 billion from personal buyers.
| Position | Name | Existing supercomputing infrastructure | New or replace? | Budget |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kajaani, Finland | LIGHT OFF | ROOM | New | At least 556 million euros |
| Stuttgart, Germany | SHARK Hammer | High-performance computing heart in Stuttgart | New | 85 million euros |
| Athens, Greece | Lighthouse | DAEDALUS, GRNET | Update | 30 million euros |
| Bologna, Italy | IT4LIA | LEONARDO | New | 430 million euros |
| Bissen, Luxembourg | L-AI | MeluXina | New | 112 million euros |
| Barcelona, Spain | Supercomputing Center of Barcelona | Mare Nostrum 5 | Update | 198 million euros |
| Linköping, Sweden | IMITATE | National educational infrastructure for supercomputing | New | Unknown |
AI factories will decrease typical limitations to entry related to AI know-how, equivalent to the price of putting in {hardware}, shortages of relevant expertise, and knowledge safety issues that come up from utilizing offshore cloud suppliers. They can even make it simpler for researchers to stick to strict EU necessities on knowledge safety and AI ethics, as manufacturing unit administration groups shall be liable for compliance.
Also, a September relationship by former European Central Bank president and economist Mario Draghi stated the bloc was not aggressive with different international areas by way of innovation, particularly within the discipline of superior applied sciences. The factories intend to assist tackle this lack of competitiveness, guarantee strategic sovereignty and enhance management over knowledge and safety.
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“We at the moment are able to drive our ambition to make the EU the continent of synthetic intelligence with the suitable infrastructure,” stated Henna Virkkunen, Executive Vice President for Tech Sovereignty, Security and Democracy, in a speech declaration.
The first seven factories shall be operational by 2026
In January 2024, the European Commission launched a package deal of measures to help European startups and SMEs in creating reliable synthetic intelligence consistent with the AI Act. Among them was a proposal to permit the creation of factories of synthetic intelligence accessible utilizing the EuroHPC infrastructure.
The European AI Bureau was established in May, largely supposed to manage the implementation of common objective fashions and AI legislation. However, the workplace can also be tasked with creating synthetic intelligence factories.
The proposals for the seven factories had been received in November after which formally introduced on December 10. The purpose is to create the primary AI factories in early 2025 and full them by 2026. Others might be part of later; Cyprus and Slovenia have submitted letters of curiosity and the deadline for the second spherical of proposals expires on 1 February.
