The European Union is taking a significant step to enhance its artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities by seeking private sector investment to establish 'AI Gigafactories'. This move is aimed at providing European AI startups with the necessary compute capacity to scale their innovations and compete with their US counterparts. EU President Ursula von der Leyen announced the initiative at the AI Action Summit in Paris on Monday, emphasizing the need for private sector capital to build the next level of AI infrastructure.

Von der Leyen highlighted the limitations of the current EU model, which focuses on setting up talent and computing hubs leveraging existing supercomputing infrastructure, dubbed "AI factories". She argued that these efforts are not sufficient to support the development of large AI models, and that "AI Gigafactories" are necessary to provide the required massive computational capacity. The EU President emphasized that the bloc's developers must have access to powerful infrastructure to scale their innovations and fulfill the potential offered by AI technology.

The EU's push for AI Gigafactories comes as the US is also investing heavily in AI infrastructure. The US-based Stargate project has pledged to commit up to $500 billion over four years to build out data center infrastructure, aiming to cement US leadership in AI. In response, the EU is seeking to attract private sector investment to stay competitive in the AI compute race. Von der Leyen noted that the topic would be discussed at a closed-door plenary meeting at the summit.

In a bid to attract capital, von der Leyen highlighted the EU's collaborative approach to IP development, which focuses on pooling and sharing knowledge across Member States for the public good. She emphasized that the EU's AI Gigafactories would provide researchers and startups with a unique opportunity to access top-notch computing infrastructure, allowing industries to cooperate and federate their data. This, she argued, would enable unprecedented advances in basic science and climate modeling, as well as allow hospitals to safely train models based on images and genomic data they own.

The EU's planned AI Gigafactories are expected to be open to the best talents, with von der Leyen emphasizing the need for a collaborative approach to drive innovation in the field. The French president has already unveiled a private sector AI investment package totaling around $112 billion in the EU Member State, demonstrating the bloc's commitment to enhancing its AI capabilities.

The EU's efforts to boost its AI compute capacity are critical in the context of the ongoing AI race between the US and the EU. As the bloc seeks to establish itself as a leader in AI innovation, it must ensure that its developers have access to the necessary infrastructure and resources. The success of the EU's AI Gigafactories initiative will depend on its ability to attract private sector investment and drive collaboration among its Member States.

For more information on the AI Action Summit and the EU's AI initiatives, read our full coverage of the event.