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Gigafactories of AI: does Europe reinvent its digital CERN?
The president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen has just announced that the European Union initiates an unprecedented initiative in the field of artificial intelligence. With Investithe European Commission aims to mobilize 200 billion eurosof which 20 billion to finance four Gigafactories of AI. The objective: to create a shared infrastructure for the development of very advanced AI models. A strategy that the president of the commission, Ursula von der Leyen, compared to the Cernthe European particle physics laboratory. But is this model transposed to digital?
AI infrastructure on a continental scale
The four Gigafactories of AI funded by Investi will have 100,000 latest generation chipseither four times more that the infrastructures being deployed. This computation power aims to allow the training of very complex models, especially in critical fields such as the health, science and industry.
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The initiative is based on an approach public-privatewith a funded fund in different levels of risk and yield. There European Investment Bank and the EU budget will play a starting role in attracting private capital, while the Member States cohesion funds will complete the funding.
A bet on open innovation
Europe wants to differentiate itself from American and Chinese models by focusing on a shared access to calculation resources. Unlike Big Tech, which develop private infrastructure to train their own models, European gigafactories will be open to the entire ecosystem, from startups to industrialists.
To achieve its ambitions, Investi will have to take up several challenges. Starting by creating a sufficiently competitive framework to attract investors capable of abounding this objective of 200 billion euros, and make these infrastructure sufficiently competitive and profitable Faced with the solutions already available.
If gigafactories make it possible to develop advanced models, European industry must still take it. Will large European technological companies be ready to adopt this model rather than relying as they do today on the existing infrastructure of American Big Techs?
Europe in search of a strategic alternative
The European Union seeks to build a way Between the ultra-capitalist model of the Big Tech and the centralized piloting of China. Ambition shared by our minister in charge of AI, Clara Chappaz who was already stated last November, this “third way”. An objective which, if Investi manages to materialize its vision, could redefine the dynamics of AI in Europe and strengthen its autonomy in the face of foreign solutions.
It remains to be seen whether this strategy will find an echo in the European ecosystem or if, like other past initiatives, it will remain in the ambitious state of project, slowed down by administrative heaviness and the difficulty in aligning the interests of different actors.
“Artificial intelligence will improve our health system, stimulate our research and innovation, and will strengthen our competitiveness. We want AI to be a force of progress and growth. We implement this ambition through our own European approach – based on the opening, cooperation and excellence of talents. But this approach must still be intensified. This is why, with our Member States and our partners, we will mobilize unprecedented capital through Investi to finance Gigafactories of AI in Europe. This unique public-private partnership, comparable to an AI CERN, will allow all our scientists and businesses-not just the greatest players-to develop very advanced and large models necessary to make Europe a continent leader in artificial intelligence. »»
Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission
