AI Factory - EuroHPC National Node for AI Supercomputing

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AI Factory - EuroHPC National Node for AI Supercomputing

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The results of the latest round of calls for European Artificial Intelligence Factories (AI Factories) were announced in Luxembourg. Among the successful applicants is the Czech Republic, specifically a consortium of six partners led by the VSB – Technical University of Ostrava. Under the Czech AI Factory (CZAI) initiative, the country will acquire a high-performance AI supercomputer and launch a package of services provided by consortium experts. These resources will support small and medium-sized enterprises, industry, as well as public and research institutions. The Czech Institute of Informatics, Robotics and Cybernetics (CIIRC CTU) at the Czech Technical University in Prague plays a major role in the project. The AI Factory calls were issued in three rounds by the EuroHPC Joint Undertaking (EuroHPC JU), a legal and funding body combining the European Union, participating countries, and private entities to coordinate efforts and pool resources, with the goal of establishing Europe as a global leader in supercomputing, quantum computing, and artificial intelligence. The six newly announced AI Factories will join the 13 already selected, forming a connected network of AI centers ready to drive innovation across Europe. Each AI Factory will operate as a one-stop shop offering startups, SMEs, industry, public organizations, and researchers end-to-end support for AI adoption, data management and processing, access to AI-optimized computing infrastructure, training and knowledge transfer, and talent development. CZAI will support the growth and deployment of AI in the Czech Republic, with a focus on practical applications, technological infrastructure, and skills development. Its broader goal is to integrate the Czech AI ecosystem more deeply into the European AI Factory network and other international AI initiatives. At the core of the project is KarolAIna, a new AI-optimized supercomputer building on experience with the EuroHPC petascale system Karolina, which is hosted and operated by the national supercomputing center IT4Innovations. KarolAIna will run on approximately 340 state-of-the-art AI chips and deliver a performance of up to 850 PFlop/s for typical AI tasks. It will serve industry, government, research teams, and startups by providing the computational power needed for training, deploying, and experimenting with AI models. The CZAI consortium is led by VSB – Technical University of Ostrava and includes the Czech Technical University in Prague, the International Neurodegenerative Disorders Research Center, Charles University, the Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry of the Czech Academy of Sciences, and Brno University of Technology. Experts from these respected institutions will provide support across multiple domains. In industry, they will focus on AI integration in manufacturing, reducing downtime, deploying digital twins, and robotics. In healthcare and life sciences, the focus will be on drug development, molecular design, and clinical decision support. The energy sector will gain tools for forecasting, flow optimization, and diagnostics to speed up the transition to sustainable systems. Public administration will use AI to streamline processes and online services. In cybersecurity, advanced threat detection and defense will be prioritized. In transport, AI will boost autonomous vehicles, smart infrastructure, and legal frameworks. The total cost of the Czech AI Factory project is nearly CZK 1 billion (EUR 40 million). Half of this will be funded by EuroHPC JU. The other half will be funded by the Czech Republic. About 50% of the funds will be spent on acquiring and operating the KarolAIna supercomputer, while the rest will go toward providing services to Czech AI Factory clients. CZAI will also establish two AI campuses—one in Prague and another in Brno.