Skip to content
Predictive Systems
PSI Daily

Sweden Pays €50 Million to Share Europe's AI Power

SovereigntyAllan C. Tan, MS

Sweden is committing €50 million over five years to Europe's joint AI gigafactory programme, linking a Swedish node to a gigafactory in Finland.

Data centre server racks with overlay: Sweden Buys In to Europe's AI Compute

Sweden has decided that the smartest way to get serious AI computing power is to share it. The government announced on October 22 that it is committing a total of €50 million over five years to buy computing power through Europe's joint AI gigafactory programme, with a node in Sweden linked to an AI gigafactory in Finland.

Buying in, not building alone

AI gigafactories are huge computing centres for building and running AI. They are being bought jointly through the EuroHPC Joint Undertaking, a European partnership for advanced computing. The government has given the Swedish Tax Agency, Skatteverket, the authority to join the shared purchasing agreement signed in July, after the Swedish parliament approved taking part. Countries that join help pay for the purchase and in return get access to the computing power, which Sweden says can serve the public sector, research and innovation.

The goal is plain. The government says the project should make Sweden and the EU less digitally dependent on other continents. "By working with Finland, we can strengthen our independence from other continents," said Erik Slottner, Sweden's Minister for Public Administration.

Why sharing matters

A single gigafactory is expected to cost at least €4 to 5 billion, according to a legal summary of the EU call. Few countries can pay that alone. Pooling lets a mid-sized country buy a slice of world-class computing while keeping its data and its AI work on European soil.

Nothing is built yet. The EU is still choosing who will run the gigafactories, with bids due in December and February, and the Swedish announcement does not say where in Finland the gigafactory would be.

For smaller countries, including the Philippines, the lesson is worth noting. You may not need to own a giant data centre to gain control over your AI. You may only need trusted neighbours to share one with.

Sources

  1. Nästa steg i satsningen på europeiska AI-gigafabriker (Government of Sweden, in Swedish)
  2. Call for tenders for the selection of Artificial Intelligence Gigafactory Consortia and the establishment of AI Gigafactories (EuroHPC Joint Undertaking)
  3. EuroHPC Joint Undertaking Launches AI Gigafactories Call (Sullivan & Cromwell)
  4. Nokia-led consortium eyes Oulu for EU-backed AI "gigafactory", but company hasn't confirmed the location (Finnish AI Region)

Photo: "Datacenter Server Racks" by Carl Lender, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0. Illustrative image, not the Finnish site.