Meeting between the Minister for Digital Transformation and Public Function, Óscar López, and the Executive Vice-President of the European Commission for Technological Sovereignty, Security and Democracy, Henna Virkunnen
The European Commission this week awarded Spain a second AI Factory. This new infrastructure, which comes in addition to the AI factory at the Barcelona Supercomputing Center-Centro Nacional de Supercomputación (BSN-CNS), will be located at the Galician Supercomputing Centre (CESGA), a foundation owned by the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) - a body attached to the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities - and the Xunta de Galicia. The start-up of this factory will involve a total investment of 82 million euros, of which the Government of Spain is providing 24 million euros, through the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities.
The Minister for Digital Transformation and Public Function, Óscar López, said that "Spain is leading Europe in advanced technological capabilities, democratising access to AI innovation, thanks to the intense work that this government is carrying out to boost the technological independence of Spain and Europe". Within the framework of the informal Council of EU Telecommunications Ministers in Horsens (Denmark), López held a bilateral meeting with Henna Virkunnen, Executive Vice-President of the European Commission for Technological Sovereignty, Security, and Democracy, in which they congratulated each other on the selection of the Spanish project.
Spain is thus at the forefront of Artificial Intelligence in Europe. Together with Germany and Poland, it is one of only three countries that already have two AI factories within their territory. The new factory, called 1HealthAI, will acquire an AI-specific supercomputer and an advanced supercomputing platform optimised for experimental AI.
In addition, comprehensive support services will be provided to companies and research centres free of charge. The deployment of this infrastructure will also help to boost the creation and strengthening of start-ups, improve the competitiveness of companies, attract talent and create jobs through access to advanced AI tools available to all stakeholders in life sciences-related sectors, such as healthcare research and biotechnology.
Barcelona Supercomputing Center-Centro Nacional de Supercomputación
The first AI factory located in Spain, at the Barcelona Supercomputing Center-Centro Nacional de Supercomputación (BSC-CNS), was one of the first seven to be approved by the European Commission last December. The Government of Spain, through the Ministries of Digital Transformation and Public Function and Science, Innovation and Universities, promoted this pioneering initiative, which is also one of the largest in Europe. And it is already working towards the goal of democratising access to Europe's advanced supercomputing infrastructure, so that companies, SMEs and start-ups can also benefit from its resources, and not just the research community as is currently the case. This factory has already launched its first services to businesses and will soon be fully operational to strengthen AI innovation in Spain.
Non official translation