Winners Announced for the Large AI Grand Challenge - European Commission
The European Commission recently revealed the champions of the Large AI Grand Challenge. Four pioneering AI startups from Europe have been selected to divide a grand prize of €1 million along with 8 million computational hours. This initiative aims to propel Europe's prominence in the realm of AI development.
Recognition Ceremony
Commissioner Thierry Breton presided over the awards ceremony for the Large AI Grand Challenge at Berlaymont in Brussels. The victorious startups to be lauded are:
These four promising startups are set to benefit from a total of €1 million in prize money and a substantial allocation of 8 million GPU hours on EuroHPC JU supercomputers. The allocated supercomputing time will play a crucial role in advancing their large-scale AI models over the coming year, significantly reducing training durations from years to mere weeks. Post this developmental phase, the winners are anticipated to release their models under an open-source license for non-commercial utilization or share their research findings. 
Significance of the Initiative
These initiatives underscore the vast innovation and strategic commitment to AI development across Europe, addressing an array of areas such as linguistic inclusivity, societal challenges, and operational efficiency in diverse sectors.
The Large AI Challenge attracted a total of 94 proposals, reflecting the competitive landscape of AI within Europe.
Additional Compute Time Allocation
On top of this competition organized by the European Commission, the EuroHPC JU has extended additional compute time to the supercomputer MareNostrum 5 hosted by the Barcelona Supercomputing Centre. This endeavor will see 800,000 computational hours being assigned to the 5th ranked proposal from Multiverse Computing, a quantum computing startup focusing on enhancing the energy efficiency and speed of large language models. 
Launch and Collaborative Efforts
The Large AI Grand Challenge was initiated in November 2023 to foster innovation and excellence in large-scale AI models within Europe. This collaborative effort, spearheaded by the EU-funded project AI-BOOST, in conjunction with the European Commission and the EuroHPC Joint Undertaking, not only illustrates the EU's commitment to nurturing technological advancement but also sets the stage for a united future leveraging European AI talent and resources optimally.
This initiative aligns with the GenAI4EU initiative, aimed at developing AI solutions that empower strategic sectors within the EU and the public sector.
EuroHPC JU
The EuroHPC Joint Undertaking (EuroHPC JU) is a legal and funding entity established in 2018 to facilitate coordination among the European Union and EuroHPC participating nations to consolidate efforts and resources in making Europe a frontrunner in supercomputing.
With the procurement of nine supercomputers distributed across Europe, the EuroHPC JU is equipped to provide European scientists, public sector, and industry users, irrespective of their location, access to EuroHPC supercomputers via EuroHPC Access Calls. These calls aim to advance science and support the development of varied applications with industrial, scientific, and societal relevance for Europe.
Particularly noteworthy is the AI and Data-Intensive Applications Access Call, tailored to cater to small to medium enterprises (SMEs) and startups requiring access to supercomputing resources for artificial intelligence and data-intensive activities.
