EuroHPC JU selects AI Factory Antennas to broaden AI Factories Initiative – four Antennas to the LUMI AI Factory
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The EuroHPC Joint Undertaking has selected 13 AI Factory Antennas to complement existing AI Factories. This step will strengthen national AI ecosystems and extend access to AI-optimised supercomputing resources across Europe. Four Antennas will be connected to the LUMI AI Factory.
The newly selected AI Factory Antennas are established to expand and complement the services of the existing EuroHPC AI Factories.
The European Union will fund the AI Factory Antennas with an investment of around €55 million, matched by contributions from the participating states.
Each Antenna will work in close coordination with its respective AI Factories to support the continued development of national AI ecosystems, providing access to AI-optimised supercomputing resources for research, innovation, and industrial applications in different fields. In addition, the AI Factory Antennas may also provide smaller-scale AI computing resources to support the fine-tuning, testing, and validation of AI applications.
The establishment of these AI Factory Antennas represents a significant milestone in broadening the impact of the AI Factories initiative. They will enable wider access to high-performance AI infrastructure and contribute to Europe’s ambition to advance artificial intelligence research and innovation.
The Antennas connected to the LUMI AI Factory are from Belgium, Iceland, Latvia and Switzerland.
– We are proud to announce four AI Factory Antenna partnerships, to Belgium, Iceland, Latvia and Switzerland. These efforts will be aligned and be in very nice synergy with LUMI AI Factory’s services, plans and ambitions, helping us to expand our scope and deepen our service portfolio. We also believe that the association will bring a significant value-add for the Antennas, stated Pekka Manninen, Director of LUMI AI Factory.
More information about these four Antennas:
BE-AIFA (Belgium)
The BE-AI Factory Antenna aims to build an AI ecosystem to support SMEs, startups, public bodies and researchers with easier access to AI-ready compute power and quality data, along with services to support the growth of Europe’s AI talent pool. It will focus on sectors such as defence and security, health, biotech & life sciences, manufacturing, robotics and process control, space and aeronautics, as well as the public services digital transformation. It will be linked with the LUMI AI Factory in Finland and the JUPITER AI-Factory in Germany.
AIFA ICE (Iceland)
AIFA-ICE will establish Iceland’s national AI Factory Antenna to address the AI and HPC needs of startups, SMEs, and public sector organisations. It will provide access to advanced AI and HPC resources through the LUMI AI Factory, complemented by a small-scale AI system for testing and training purposes. This Antenna will deliver tailored AI and data services across key sectors, including the development of Icelandic language models, enabling organisations to adopt trustworthy, and sovereign AI solutions.
AIFA – LAT (Latvia)
The AI Factory Antenna aims to strengthen the Latvia’s AI innovation infrastructure by creating a technologically robust, modular, and scalable system that supports research, experimentation, and adoption of AI across key sectors of the economy, academia and public administration. AIFA-LAT will connect AI research, technical capability development, and innovation, accelerating Latvia’s progress toward a more competitive and data-driven economy and it will be linked with the LUMI AI Factory in Finland.
HEARTS (Switzerland)
Helvetic AI Resources, Technologies and Services (HEARTS), the AI Factory Antenna in Switzerland aims to make AI-optimised computing and data services more widely accessible through the Alps research infrastructure. It will serve national and European users across academia, startups, SMEs, and the public sector. HEARTS will work in close partnership with the LUMI AI Factory and collaborate with the BSC AI Factory in Spain, the MIMER AI Factory in Sweden and IT4LIA AI Factory in Italy. By showcasing high-profile use cases in areas such as weather forecasting and sensitive data applications, HEARTS will help build a skilled AI workforce offering training to hundreds of students and innovators and strengthening the AI talent pool.
More details
In September 2024, the EuroHPC JU launched the AI Factories initiative to select hosting entities that will host and operate AI-optimised supercomputers, AI experimental platforms and AI factories across Europe.
Building on this, in April 2025 the EuroHPC JU issued a call for proposals, HORIZON-EUROHPC-JU-2025-AIFA-01, to invite institutions and consortia to establish AI Factory Antennas. The aim of the call was to enable more countries to participate in the AI Factories network without requiring significant investment in large-scale supercomputing infrastructure.
Today, following the last cut-off for AI Factories selection, six new AI Factories have been selected, forming an interconnected network of 19 AI hubs ready to drive innovation across Europe.
By mid-2026, all selected AI Factory Antennas and the linked AI Factories will sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to set out the terms of their collaboration and will contribute to the mission and objectives of the associated AI Factories.
Background
The EuroHPC JU is a legal and funding entity that brings together the European Union and participating countries to coordinate efforts and pool resources with the objective of making Europe a world leader in supercomputing.
To equip Europe with a cutting-edge supercomputing infrastructure, the EuroHPC JU has already procured 11 supercomputers, distributed across Europe. Three of these EuroHPC supercomputers are now ranked among the world’s top 10 most powerful supercomputers: JUPITER in Germany, Europe’s first exascale supercomputer (4th place) along with LUMI in Finland (9th place), Leonardo in Italy (10th place).
European scientists and users from the public sector and industry can benefit from EuroHPC supercomputers via the EuroHPC Access Calls no matter where in Europe they are located, to advance science and support the development of a wide range of applications with industrial, scientific and societal relevance for Europe.The EuroHPC JU is also deploying a European Quantum Computing infrastructure, integrating diverse European quantum computing technologies with existing supercomputers. EuroHPC JU already inaugurated PIAST-Q in Poznań, Poland and VLQ in Ostrava, Czechia, marking a milestone in Europe’s leap into the quantum era.
Read more:
Press release on the EuroHPC JU website about 13 selected AI Factory Antennas