Europe’s top supercomputer alliance has announced the winners of its AI startup competition. Four companies will share a €1 million prize and get critical time on high-performance computer systems to train their models.
What’s Happening & Why This Matters
The EU has a strong interest in “digital sovereignty” and has invested billions of euros into its supercomputer alliance, known as the EuroHPC. The goal is to make these supercomputers available to European AI startups. Also, on Wednesday, the Large AI Grand Challenge competition announced the four winners who will receive financial backing and time on the LUMI and LEONARDO supercomputers. By having access to these supercomputers, AI model training time is reduced from years to weeks.
The lucky winners are startups from France, Portugal, Estonia, and Belgium. They’re involved in cutting-edge language technologies, fintech, and the analysis of hate speech. An additional entry from Spain will get to work with the Mare Nostrum supercomputer in Barcelona.
TF Summary: What’s Next
After 12 months, the startups are required to release their findings under certain licenses or publish their research. Expanding efficient, large-scale data processing is crucial for any future developments. Moreover, the technologies are poised for wide-ranging impacts on finance, language translation, and hate speech analysis.