EU opens six more “AI factories” in the region

Illustration photo.

The European High Performance Computing Project (EuroHPC JU), a regional joint collaboration, has just announced the selection of six new sites in the Czech Republic, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania and Spain to deploy new “AI Factories”, expected to be operational next year.

This is an important expansion step in the European Union's (EU) strategy for developing artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure, bringing the total number of factories invested by EuroHPC JU to 19 facilities, promoting innovation and technological competitiveness of the EU.

As planned, the new AI Factories will be equipped with AI-optimized supercomputers, providing data services, computing power, training and technical support for startups, small and medium-sized enterprises and researchers.

In the Czech Republic, the CZAI AI Factory is located at the IT4Innovations National Supercomputing Center. The project is led by the Technical University of Ostrava and leading Czech universities and research institutes, focusing on developing technological infrastructure, training skills and connecting the national AI ecosystem with the European AI network.

In Lithuania, the LitAI Factory, led by Vilnius University and located at the LRTC VDC3 data center in Vilnius, aims to transform the country's supercomputing infrastructure into sovereign AI systems, serving the fields of cybersecurity, green energy, smart industry, and digital health.

In the Netherlands, NLAIF, chaired by the AIFNL Foundation, works with national research and technology organizations to bridge the gap between large-scale AI research and application, especially in data-sensitive areas such as healthcare, agriculture , and cybersecurity.

Gaia AI Factory in Poland, deployed by Cyfronet AGH, expands the national AI infrastructure, promoting AI applications in healthcare , aerospace and large language models (LLMs).

In Romania, the RO AI Factory, hosted by the National Institute for Research and Development in Informatics (ICI Bucharest), aims to support small and medium-sized enterprises in digital transformation and AI application innovation through training services and supercomputer access.

In Spain, the Spanish One-Health AI Factory (1HealthAI) located at the Galicia Supercomputing Center (CESGA) focuses on AI research for human, animal and environmental health, contributing to the development of the European “One Health” model.

EuroHPC JU currently owns 11 supercomputers located in member countries, of which three systems are in the top 10 most powerful supercomputers in the world: JUPITER (Germany), LUMI (Finland) and Leonardo (Italy). The organization is also investing in developing quantum computing infrastructure, with the first two quantum systems - PIAST-Q (Poland) and VLQ (Czech) - officially operating, marking an important step forward for Europe in the quantum era.

The EuroHPC Joint Undertaking (EuroHPC JU) is a joint legal entity between the EU, Member States and private partners, established in 2018. Its mission is to coordinate, invest in and operate state-of-the-art supercomputing and high-performance computing (HPC) infrastructure for European research, innovation and industrial development. EuroHPC JU also manages funding, research and training programmes to ensure Europe can be self-reliant in computing, data and AI.

The selection of six new AI Factories is seen as a strategic step to help Europe strengthen its position as a global hub for artificial intelligence and supercomputing, while ensuring the values of technological autonomy, data security and sustainable development in the digital ecosystem.

Source: https://vtv.vn/eu-mo-them-sau-nha-may-ai-tai-khu-vuc-100251012110658452.htm