At the recent VivaTech summit in Paris, NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang made a bold prediction: Europe's artificial intelligence (AI) computing power is expected to increase tenfold within the next two years. This forecast has garnered significant attention from the industry, especially against the backdrop of the growing global emphasis on AI technology.
Huang highlighted that Europe is currently building over 20 "AI mega-factories" that will provide robust infrastructure support for the development of AI. He emphasized that European countries have recognized the importance of AI factories, with several large-scale data centers under construction boasting a power supply capacity of over 1 gigawatt, placing them among the world's top data centers.
"The shortage of AI resources faced by researchers and startups will soon be alleviated," Huang stated, as future efforts will lead to a more abundant supply of AI resources. During his meeting with UK Prime Minister Stammer, the CEO mentioned that insufficient infrastructure is constraining the UK's talent advantages and the vitality of startups in the AI field. His European trip is also an important part of NVIDIA's global strategy to promote the application of AI technology.
Although Huang did not disclose specific investment amounts, he estimated that the construction cost of a single AI factory could reach up to $50 billion. Meanwhile, the European Union announced the establishment of a €20 billion special fund to support the construction of five AI mega-factories equipped with over 100,000 processors, focusing on the research and development of next-generation AI models.
During their time in Paris, NVIDIA also announced a series of cooperation plans with European AI infrastructure, including the joint construction of an "AI cloud platform" with French AI company Mistral. This service, named Mistral Compute, will be equipped with 18,000 of NVIDIA's latest Grace Blackwell chips. The first data center will be located in Essonne, France, with plans to expand to other European regions.
To expand the AI accelerator market, NVIDIA is promoting the construction of national AI infrastructure by countries. Huang emphasized, "Every country should establish its own AI system. Data is the cornerstone of AI – the key is not to export data but to purchase equipment for independent development."
Currently, NVIDIA's European ecosystem has attracted the participation of 1.5 million developers, 9,600 companies, and 7,000 startups. To promote AI development in Europe, NVIDIA has carried out in-depth cooperation with multiple cloud service providers and telecommunications operators, and plans to build the world's first "industrial AI cloud."