At the recent Artificial Intelligence (AI) Action Summit in Paris, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen unveiled InvestAI, an initiative aimed at mobilising €200bn for the development of AI infrastructure in Europe.
This initiative includes the establishment of a new €20bn European fund dedicated to the creation of AI gigafactories, designed to facilitate the development of the most complex AI models. The initiative is part of Europe’s strategic vision to become a global leader in AI innovation.
The new AI gigafactories will focus on training advanced AI models that require large-scale computing infrastructure, specifically targeting breakthroughs in fields like healthcare, medicine, and science.
The gigafactories are expected to include around 100,000 state-of-the-art AI chips, four times more than the current AI factories under development. These facilities will support the open, cooperative development of AI, ensuring that not only large corporations but also smaller companies and startups have access to the computing power necessary to build the future of AI.
InvestAI is poised to become the largest public-private partnership for AI development globally. It will prioritise the development of trustworthy AI and foster open innovation, particularly in industrial and mission-critical applications. This approach aims to make AI accessible to a broad range of organisations, enhancing Europe’s position as a leader in AI technology.
The InvestAI fund will be supported by a combination of EU budget funding and contributions from member states. The EU’s initial investment will come from existing digital-focused programs like the Digital Europe Programme, Horizon Europe, and InvestEU, with additional support from member states’ cohesion funds.
The fund will be structured to manage various risk profiles, de-risking investments for private partners.
This funding model is part of the EU’s broader strategy to support AI innovation, which includes a mix of grants and equity investments.
In addition to the AI gigafactories, the European Commission has already committed to the creation of seven AI factories, with plans to announce five more in the coming months. The existing €10bn in funding for these AI factories, co-financed by the EU and member states, is set to be the world’s largest public investment in AI.
This support is expected to unlock significant private investment and provide extensive access to supercomputing resources for both startups and established industries.
The launch of InvestAI is part of a broader AI innovation package by the European Commission, which also includes initiatives aimed at fostering generative AI talent, encouraging public-private investments in AI startups, and accelerating the development of Common European Data Spaces.
These data spaces will support AI developers by providing access to the critical data needed to train and refine AI models.
As part of its ongoing efforts to enhance AI research, the Commission also plans to establish a European AI Research Council and launch the ‘Apply AI’ initiative later this year to drive industrial adoption of AI across key sectors, including robotics, healthcare, biotech, manufacturing, and solutions regarding the climate crisis.
The InvestAI initiative underscores the European Commission’s commitment to positioning Europe as a hub for AI innovation, ensuring that the continent remains competitive on the global stage while fostering responsible and collaborative development of AI technologies.
Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, said: “AI will improve our healthcare, spur our research and innovation and boost our competitiveness. We want AI to be a force for good and for growth. We are doing this through our own European approach – based on openness, cooperation and excellent talent. But our approach still needs to be supercharged.
“This is why, together with our Member States and with our partners, we will mobilise unprecedented capital through InvestAI for 5European AI gigafactories. This unique public-private partnership, akin to a CERN for AI, will enable all our scientists and companies – not just the biggest – to develop the most advanced very large models needed to make Europe an AI continent.”
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