EU launches a name to assemble early insights on the way to form the way forward for AI infrastructure in Europe
In sum, what to know:
76 proposals throughout 60 websites – The European Fee acquired 76 expressions of curiosity for AI gigafactories in 16 member states, far exceeding expectations.
Over 3 million GPUs deliberate – Respondents outlined plans to accumulate greater than 3 million state-of-the-art processors to energy large-scale AI mannequin growth and deployment.
Subsequent steps coming in This fall – The EU will launch a proper name for gigafactory proposals in late 2025, following discussions with preliminary respondents.
The fee acquired a complete of 76 expressions of curiosity proposing to arrange AI gigafactories in 16 member states throughout 60 totally different websites.
In a launch, the physique famous that these initiatives have been submitted in response to the name for expression of curiosity in AI gigafactories, which closed on June 20.
“The excessive variety of proposals acquired went effectively past the fee expectations. It’s a clear testomony to the very excessive momentum and curiosity in AI throughout Europe, and particularly in AI gigafactories. This wave of curiosity underscores Europe’s alternative to place itself as a world powerhouse in synthetic intelligence, absolutely aligned with the daring imaginative and prescient set out within the AI Continent Motion Plan,” the European Fee mentioned.
The fee additionally famous that the principle goal of this name for expression of curiosity was to assemble early insights from respondents comprising European business leaders, personal and public buyers and the member states focused on shaping the way forward for AI infrastructure in Europe.
“Whereas these submissions usually are not formal purposes, they may play an important function in serving to the European Fee and member states determine and map out a dynamic, non-binding roster of potential candidates prepared to ascertain world-class AI gigafactory services throughout the European Union,” the fee added.
The respondents embrace main firms representing information heart operators, telcos, energy suppliers in addition to each European and world know-how companions and monetary buyers. Of their expressions of curiosity, the respondents foresee the acquisition of at the least three million newest era specialised processors (GPUs) in complete.
The fee added that it’s going to not disclose additional details about the id of the respondents, given the confidential enterprise data offered of their expressions of curiosity.
The physique additionally mentioned it can quickly enter in discussions with all of the respondents to arrange the subsequent steps of the AI gigafactory initiative. The fee can also be planning to launch an official name for the institution of AI gigafactories within the European Union within the fourth quarter of this 12 months.
“The AI gigafactories idea builds on the AI Factories initiative, harnessing Europe’s cutting-edge EuroHPC supercomputing community to comprehend the EU’s ambition of turning into the world’s main AI continent. AI gigafactories might be state-of-the-art, large-scale AI compute and information storage hubs, purpose-built to develop, prepare and deploy next-generation AI fashions and purposes at hyperscale, e.g. fashions with tons of of trillions of parameters. By integrating huge computing energy, energy-efficient information facilities, and AI-driven automation, these services will set new benchmarks for AI mannequin coaching, inference and deployment,” the fee mentioned.
The European continent is presently taking part in a really lively function within the AI infra subject. In Could, on the AI Motion Summit in Paris, European Fee President Ursula von der Leyen formally launched InvestAI, a €20 billion ($21.4 billion) initiative geared toward remodeling the EU into a number one hub for AI innovation. A central a part of this initiative is the creation of 4 large-scale AI gigafactories throughout the EU. These services might be able to coaching a number of the world’s most complicated AI fashions, utilizing round 100,000 next-generation AI chips every.
The fee describes the brand new gigafactories as a “CERN for AI” — a large-scale public-private partnership open to researchers, firms and governments. The purpose is to make sure that AI growth in Europe isn’t restricted to tech giants, however accessible to a variety of gamers, together with start-ups and analysis establishments.
The gigafactories will serve industries engaged on mission-critical purposes, reminiscent of healthcare, biotech, local weather science and robotics. They’re designed to help Europe’s cooperative innovation mannequin, emphasizing transparency, safety and equal entry to know-how.
Additionally, Nvidia lately mentioned it’s partnering with European governments and main tech, telecom and cloud suppliers with the intention of deploying AI infrastructure throughout the continent.
