European High Performance Computing Joint Undertaking (EuroHPC)

The European Parliament adopted by 604 votes to 37, with 18 abstentions, a legislative resolution on the proposal for a Council regulation on amending Council Regulation (EU) 2021/1173 of 13 July 2021 on establishing the European High Performance Computing Joint Undertaking and repealing Regulation (EU) 2018/1488.

Parliament approved the Commission proposal as amended:

Definitions

The amended text included the definition of the following terms:

- ‘Artificial Intelligence Giga Factory’ or ‘AI Gigafactory’ to mean a state-of-the-art large-scale facility, exceeding 100 000 advanced AI processors;

- ‘AI Gigafactory Coordinator’ will mean a legal entity, duly incorporated in the Union and validly existing under the laws of a Member State of establishment, not subject to jurisdictional or financial conditionalities provided for in third-country law.

Mission and objectives

Parliament proposed that the joint undertaking also support the European quantum technology ecosystem, including the excellent scientific and applied research activities and the competitiveness of the emerging European quantum industry. When providing its support for the European quantum technologies ecosystem it shall duly recognise the different levels of maturity of the different quantum technology fields as well as the legacy of the Quantum Flagship.

European quantum activities

Quantum activities should receive sufficient funding within the framework of the Joint Undertaking. In this regard, it is proposed that a dedicated and ring-fenced part of the Union's additional contribution to the Joint Undertaking (EUR 160 000 000) be dedicated exclusively to research and innovation activities in the field of quantum technologies. No transfer between this strictly dedicated budget and the budget available for activities related to high-performance computing and AI would be permitted. Member States should be able to increase their contribution to the Joint Undertaking to support research and innovation activities in the field of quantum technologies.

Pillars of activity

The ‘AI gigafactory’ pillar should:

- provide a world-class Artificial Intelligence compute infrastructure for European researchers, entrepreneurs, and industries, ensuring that access to computing resources is facilitated for SMEs and mid-caps;

- ensure the Union’s competitiveness and sovereignty as an Artificial Intelligence continent.

Artificial Intelligence Giga Factory

The Joint Undertaking should ensure that all AI Gigafactories comply with Unionwide interoperability, cybersecurity and data-protection standards, creating a secure and trusted computing ecosystem. Participation in an AI Gigafactory Consortium of legal entities from non-Participating States should not be permitted. However, in duly justified cases, the Commission may assess, on a case-by-case basis, that such participation is not considered contrary to the Union's strategic assets, interests, autonomy or security.

When the governing board determines the conditions of the Union's access time, it should ensure that this access:

- include reserved compute resources specifically for EU-funded research projects and small companies and entities operating under the open science principle, ensuring guaranteed availability and scheduling priority;

- be granted as a priority and be accompanied by support measures for SMEs, start-ups, micro-enterprises and research organisations, including those in non-for-profit or pre-competitive research, developing applications with high societal or industrial impact on the Union.

Infrastructure

Since the large-scale deployment of high-performance computing systems and large-capacity AI infrastructures entails significant energy, water and other resource consumption, such infrastructures should be designed and operated in line with the Union’s climate-neutrality and energy-efficiency objectives, including renewable-energy sourcing, efficient cooling and waste-heat recovery.