The EuroHPC Joint Undertaking (EuroHPC JU) selected six new sites in Europe to house additional AI factories. The institutes will be in Austria, Bulgaria, France, Germany, Poland and Slovenia.
France and Germany will launch AI factories that will operate alongside Europe’s first exascale supercomputers, Alice Recoque and JUPITER. Meanwhile, Austria, Bulgaria, Poland and Slovenia will deploy new AI-optimized systems with AI factories to further expand Europe’s AI infrastructure.
The AI factory in Germany (Jülich) will also include an experimental platform. This will serve as an advanced infrastructure for developing and testing innovative AI models and applications.
These six new AI factories will be added to the seven previously selected places for AI factories. This will create an interconnected network of AI hubs supporting European AI innovation. Each factory will then act as a one-stop shop, offering AI startups, SMEs, and researchers comprehensive support to develop their datasets and access AI-optimized high-performance computing (HPC) resources, training, and technical expertise.
Austria focuses on ethical AI
The AI Factory Austria (AI:AT) is focused on ethical, practical, and sustainable AI development. The institute helps companies, researchers, and policymakers turn ideas into actionable solutions.
The AI factory will be installed at TU Wien in Vienna. It will be led by Advanced Computing Austria (ACA) and the AIT Austrian Institute of Technology (AIT). In addition, the AI factory will establish close collaborations with other EuroHPC AI factories.
Supercomputer in Bulgaria
The Bulgarian AI factory BRAIN++ will be located in Sofia Tech Park and consists of two core components: the Discoverer++, a supercomputer for advanced AI workloads, and the Bulgarian AI Factory, a comprehensive AI hub for government agencies, education, and private companies.
BRAIN++ aims to position Bulgaria as a regional leader in AI innovation by promoting talent development, supporting startups and SMEs, and fostering the development of Bulgarian language models and AI technologies for robotics and space observation.
The AI Factory France (AI2F) will build on a decentralized French AI infrastructure involving large companies, startups, research centres, universities and incubators. This infrastructure already exists.
The AI2F will promote AI deployment in France and Europe and is led by GENCI in partnership with CEA, CNRS, Inria, and The French Tech, among others. The plant uses the Alice Recoque, Europe’s second EuroHPC Exascale supercomputer.
Exascale supercomputer
The JUPITER AI Factory (JAIF) in Germany supports AI development using Europe’s first exascale supercomputer, JUPITER.
JAIF provides a one-stop shop for startups, industry and the public sector. It includes an experimental platform for AI model development: JARVIS (JUPITER Advanced Research Vehicle for Inference Services). The consortium includes Forschungszentrum Jülich, RWTH Aachen University and the Fraunhofer Institutes.
The PIAST AI facility focuses on AI research and innovation in Poland and Europe. Led by the Poznan Supercomputing and Networking Center (PSNC), PIAST works with universities and industry clusters to apply AI technologies to healthcare, cybersecurity, space and sustainability.
Slovenian AI factory SLAIF provides AI tools to businesses and the public sector. Based at IZUM in Maribor, SLAIF supports industrial AI applications and the training of large-scale AI models. The consortium includes the Jožef Stefan Institute, ARNES and five Slovenian universities.
So far, 13 sites in Europe have been selected for AI factories. The first assessment round, held on Nov. 1, 2024, selected seven countries: Finland, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, Sweden, Spain, and Greece.
The first agreements with the selected host institutions have been signed, and the procurement procedure for the systems will be launched in the first half of 2025.