Overwegingen bij COM(2025)414 - Amending Council Regulation 2021/1173 on establishing the European High Performance Computing Joint Undertaking - Hoofdinhoud
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| dossier | COM(2025)414 - Amending Council Regulation 2021/1173 on establishing the European High Performance Computing Joint Undertaking. |
|---|---|
| document | COM(2025)414  |
| datum | 15 juli 2025 |
(2) Since 2021, when the Council Regulation (EU) 2021/1173 was adopted, the field of artificial intelligence (AI) has seen enormous technical progress and become a highly strategic and contested domain globally. The European Union is at the forefront of efforts to support responsible innovation in AI, by guiding innovation, setting guardrails, and developing global governance.
(3) Large AI general purpose models have emerged as vital drivers of economic competitiveness and innovation. They become pivotal in enhancing productivity across diverse sectors and transform entire value chains, thus dictating future economic value capture. The next generation of frontier AI models are expected to unlock a leap in capabilities, towards Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) capable of tackling highly complex and diverse tasks, matching human capabilities. Regions capable of developing and implementing these AI models at scale will lead in global innovation and attract premier talent. At the same time, sectors at the forefront of science and industry, such as biotechnology, climate, automotive, defence, space and aerospace, demand substantial computing resources to undertake major AI-driven scientific discoveries and industrial innovations. Synergies between these activities and those undertaken by other Union programmes, such as the EU Space Programme, will be exploited, with appropriate safeguards in place to protect the strategic interests of the Union and its Member States.
(4) The most advanced AI Factories in Europe will be equipped with supercomputers featuring up to 25,000 advanced AI processors, allowing only to develop middle-range AI models. Significant investments are therefore needed to scale up Europe’s computing capacities to the next level.
(5) On 9 April 2025, the Commission launched the AI Continent Action Plan 11 to position the Union as a global leader in AI. A core pillar of this strategy is boosting the Europe-wide infrastructure for training advanced AI models taking the 2024 AI Factories concept up to the next level.
(6) The development of the next generation of frontier AI models is expected to require large-scale facilities, exceeding at least by three to four times the number of the most advanced AI processors available in the most powerful AI Factories, while taking into account power capacity, as well as energy, water efficiency and circularity. The existing mechanisms within Regulation 2021/1173 are not equipped today to support the establishment and operation of the AI Gigafactories. A targeted amendment is therefore necessary to provide the European High Performance Computing Joint Undertaking (the ‘Joint Undertaking’) with the necessary legal basis to be able to meet the commitments regarding setting up and operation of AI Gigafactories in Europe.
(7) Strengthening the scientific and technological bases of the Union is increasingly vital for its long-term competitiveness and strategic autonomy. Indeed, artificial intelligence has the potential of accelerating scientific discovery and enhancing research capabilities across all domains. It is therefore essential that AI private and public users, in particular SMEs and scale-ups, within the Union benefit from world-class supercomputing infrastructures in order to sustain and advance Europe’s leadership in research and innovation.
(8) The European Commission’s Competitiveness Compass, adopted on 29 January 2025, identifies strategic technologies including quantum technologies and high-performance computing as essential pillars to ensure Europe’s technological sovereignty, economic resilience, and global leadership. The Compass stresses the need for coordinated investments and ecosystem development across research, infrastructure, industry, and skills to strengthen the Union’s competitiveness in these fields.
(9) Complementing this, the European Quantum Strategy, which will be adopted in July 2025, sets out a comprehensive framework to accelerate quantum research, innovation, industrialisation, and deployment of quantum technologies and infrastructures. It aims to build a sustainable and competitive quantum ecosystem, covering computing, communication, sensing, and metrology, with a strong focus on skills development as well as on international cooperation.
(10) In view of the policy importance of this initiative, the amounts initially allocated from Horizon Europe, Digital Europe Programme and the Connecting Europe Facility should be increased to allow the Union to reach its objective, subject to budgetary availability.
(11) Given the rapid technological developments in the field and the adapting Union AI policy, possible significant additional Union financing for AI gigafactories could be required in the coming years. Considering this specific policy context, it should be possible to entrust to the Joint Undertaking additional Union funding going beyond the amounts set out in Article 5(1). Such additional contribution should be at least matched by the members of the Joint Undertaking other than the Union.
(12) In order to accelerate the development of AI Gigafactories across the Union, Member States may decide to use their remaining allocations under the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) to finance their national contributions to an AI Gigafactory. To this end, Member States should be permitted to provide contributions to the Joint Undertaking for the purpose of supporting AI Gigafactory projects.
(13) Additional Union contributions to AI gigafactories from other programmes, not listed in Article 5(1), should also be possible, through the signature of specific ad hoc contribution agreements, subject to commensurate contribution by one or more members of the Joint Undertaking other than the Union. A clear description of the intended use of entrusted funds, as well as a timeline for implementation shall be included in the corresponding contribution agreements in accordance with the relevant Commission work programme.