On Monday 11 November, the European Commission announced that it had received applications from around 10 EU countries to open up European supercomputer capacity (EuroHPC) to sectors planning to invest in artificial intelligence (AI).
Finland (in cooperation with the Czech Republic, Estonia, Denmark, Norway and Poland), Germany, Luxembourg, Sweden, Greece and Italy (with Austria and Slovenia) have submitted projects.
An application from Spain, coordinated with Portugal, Romania and Turkey, is also due to be submitted shortly.
The call for applications opened in September. A second round of projects is due by 1 February 2025.
These “AI factories”, which aim to increase the computing power available for AI in Europe, will be interconnected and made available to European startups, industry and researchers in the field of AI.
The first are due to be set up within the first 100 days of Ursula von der Leyen’s new mandate. The Commissioner-designate for Digital and Tech Sovereignty, Henna Virkkunen, had spoken of her ambition to launch five of them at the start of her mandate (see EUROPE 13511/19). (Original version in French by Isalia Stieffatre)