Europe expands AI computing network with €390 million order from France's Bull
The European Union's supercomputing body EuroHPC selected Bull to build LUMI-AI, the sixth machine ordered under its AI Factories programme. The system is a new supercomputer to be installed alongside the existing LUMI machine at Finland's supercomputing centre. It is expected to come online in the second half of 2027.
Europe is bolstering its AI supercomputing network with a €387.8 million ($449.4 million) system from French state-owned Bull, aiming to narrow the gap with the US and China in computing prowess. This is Bull's largest contract ever, surpassing the €404 million price tag of its previous largest deal following the French state's recent separation of Bull from debt-laden Atos.
The European Union's AI Factories programme selected Bull to construct LUMI-AI, the sixth machine procured under the initiative. The system will join the existing LUMI machine at Finland's supercomputing center, with installation expected in the second half of 2027.
Funding for LUMI-AI is equally split between EuroHPC and the LUMI AI Factory consortium, comprising Finland, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Norway, and Poland. This order further expands a network EuroHPC has been developing over years, with a budget of €8.2 billion allocated for 2021-2027. Currently, EuroHPC oversees 19 AI factory centers housing 12 supercomputers, including Germany's Jupiter, and is on track to secure up to seven more sites.
Bull will deploy the system for large-scale AI training and inference, alongside heavyweight scientific simulations. The computing power will be delivered by AMD chips, the primary competitor to Nvidia, with storage provided by IBM and networking handled by Nokia.
European supercomputers are already demonstrating their AI capabilities. OVHcloud, Europe's largest cloud player, recently announced the successful initial training of a foundation model on Bull's Jupiter supercomputer. Meanwhile, Domyn, an Italian startup leading the Commission-backed EUROPA consortium, has gained access to EuroHPC systems for training its own AI model, aiming for 400 billion parameters.
Despite these advancements, neither company has disclosed specifics about the model or technical specifications of LUMI-AI as they strive to establish themselves as European frontier competitors alongside Paris-based Mistral.
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