Netherlands strikes deal with Nvidia for AI supercomputing hub

The Dutch government has reached an agreement with Nvidia to supply equipment and expertise for the construction of an artificial intelligence facility in the Netherlands.

According to the agency, the facility will focus on an artificial intelligence supercomputer designed to speed up research and development as the country seeks to further digitalize its economy. statement did it on Thursday.

Dutch Minister of Economic Affairs Dirk Beljaarts is currently in Silicon Valley meeting with Nvidia executives. Nvidia, the world’s second largest company, is a global leader in graphics processing units (GPUs) for artificial intelligence applications.

“Before a shovel can go into the ground, we need to be sure that the necessary knowledge and equipment are available,” the minister said. cap “Today the Netherlands took an important step with Nvidia. This brings the construction of the Dutch artificial intelligence facility much closer.”

The ministry did not provide timetables or specific details for the creation of the artificial intelligence facility. Nvidia declined our request for comment.

the Netherlands, which ranked Ranked among the world’s ten most digitized countries last year, it aims to position itself as a leader in artificial intelligence. In January last year, the government put a barrier 200 million euros to increase local investment in technology.

“Asia and the US have taken the lead [in AI] and Europe will have to catch up,” former Economics Minister Mikki Adriansens said at the time.

Key priorities of the government’s strategy include developing AI talent, building infrastructure, ensuring secure applications and enabling collaboration through organizations such as Dutch AI Coalition. Last year, the Benelux country also began creating its own “safer” large language model (LLM), called GPT-NL.

To realize its plans, the Netherlands will need more computing power to train artificial intelligence machines. Besides Nvidia, Beljaarts is also meeting with chipmaker AMD. The minister is also in California to “strengthen relations” between Dutch and US technology companies more broadly, the government said.