AI Factory at the University of Stuttgart's High Performance Computing Center

"I extend my heartfelt congratulations to Prof. Resch and his team at HLRS on this outstanding achievement and wish the new consortium great success," said Prof. Peter Middendorf, Rector at the University of Stuttgart. “HammerHAI is a booster for AI infrastructure in Germany and has the potential to become a central cornerstone for the AI ecosystem in Europe. In this way, we can make a decisive contribution to creating a new infrastructure for artificial intelligence in Stuttgart that will advance both research and the economy.”

Coordinated by the High Performance Computing Center at the University of Stuttgart (HLRS), HammerHAI aims to meet the urgent need for more artificial intelligence: both in academic research and among start-ups, SMEs and European industry, as well as in the public sector. HammerHAI will establish an AI Factory that will provide a secure supercomputing infrastructure optimized for AI, provide expert service and support, and develop solutions that facilitate access to and use of powerful AI technologies. "The development of a strong, native infrastructure for artificial intelligence has been recognized as a top priority by both the European and German governments. HammerHAI will quickly help to meet this need,” says Prof. Michael Resch, Director of HLRS.

Researchers and companies across Europe are currently facing a number of hurdles that have limited the introduction of AI technologies to date. These include the prohibitive cost of installing in-house AI computing hardware, the lack of AI expertise and data security concerns arising from Europe's current reliance on offshore cloud AI service providers. As a central point of contact that responds to the needs of European AI users, HammerHAI aims to overcome these challenges. "In close collaboration with European artificial intelligence experts, HammerHAI will meet this demand by establishing a cutting-edge AI-optimized computing infrastructure, complemented by a comprehensive suite of services and technologies," says Bastian Koller, Managing Director of HLRS and project coordinator. “It will offer researchers and companies of all sizes new AI-powered opportunities for innovation, automation and decision-making.”

Background
The AI Factories initiative is based on the European Commission's “AI innovation package to support Artificial Intelligence startups and SMEs”, which was announced in January 2024. The aim of the measure is to support SMEs and start-ups in particular in the development of trustworthy, large-scale and high-performance AI models in Europe, thereby contributing to technological sovereignty in the field of AI. The initiative is supported by the Federal Republic of Germany.
"The AI Factory, named 'HammerHAI,' is being developed under the leadership of HLRS in collaboration with the Leibniz Supercomputing Center of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities (LRZ), the Gesellschaft für wissenschaftliche Datenverarbeitung Göttingen (GWDG), the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), and the non-profit HPC consulting firm SICOS BW. The partners contribute extensive expertise in the areas of high-performance computing, data security and AI optimization. The project has a budget of approximately 85 million euros and is co-funded by the European High-Performance Computing (EuroHPC) Joint Undertaking, the Federal Ministry of Education and Research, the Ministry of Science, Research and the Arts Baden-Württemberg, the Bavarian State Ministry of Science and the Arts, and the Ministry of Science and Culture of Lower Saxony.