Central and Eastern Europe is witnessing significant advancements in AI. At the end of 2024, the European High Performance Computing Joint Undertaking (EuroHPC) selected seven consortia to establish the first AI Factories across Europe, with Greece as the only CEE participant.
On March 12th 2025, three new CEE countries were selected – Bulgaria, Slovenia and Poland – to host additional AI factories.
This initiative represents a combined national and EU investment of approximately €485 million, aiming to accelerate AI research and development within the European Union. The AI factories will deploy new AI-optimized supercomputers and upgrade existing systems.
The other participating European countries are Austria, France, Germany, Finland, Italy, Luxembourg, Spain, and Sweden.
Bulgaria: €90M BRAIN++ factory at Sofia Tech Park
Bulgaria is set to host one of the upcoming AI factories in Europe. The project, valued at €90 million, is a collaboration between INSAIT (Institute for Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence, and Technology) and Sofia Tech Park.
The Bulgarian AI Factory, named BRAIN++, will be located at Sofia Tech Park and will feature Discoverer++, a next-generation supercomputer optimized for advanced AI workloads.
“Such compute power is important for driving world-class AI research, building foundational models and deploying gen AI at scale, certainly all things that INSAIT is driving heavily,” shared prof. Martin Vechev, founder and scientific director of INSAIT, in a Linkedin post.
BRAIN++ aims to establish Bulgaria as a key hub for AI innovation by assisting startups and small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), as well as enhancing AI technologies, including Bulgarian language large language models, robotics AI, space observation AI, and trustworthy AI compliance solutions.
Last year, INSAIT introduced Bulgaria’s first native language LLM, BgGPT.
Poland: Collaborative project for PIAST-AI center
In Poland, the PIAST-AI center will be managed by the Poznań Supercomputing and Networking Center, Poznan University of Technology, and Adam Mickiewicz University. The center will concentrate on sectors such as healthcare, cybersecurity, agriculture, and space technologies.
The PSNC-led Consortium called PIAST AI includes Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznan, jointly with Poznan University of Technology and Nicolaus Copernicus University in Torun.
Slovenia: SLAIF at the Institute of Information Sciences
The Slovenian AI factory, SLAIF, aims to equip businesses and the public sector with AI tools to enhance competitiveness, improve services, and benefit society.
The facility, based at the Institute of Information Sciences (IZUM) in Maribor, will feature an AI-optimized supercomputing infrastructure. It is designed to support industrial AI applications, train large-scale AI models, and facilitate AI-driven scientific research.
IZUM will oversee the project in collaboration with a consortium that includes the Jožef Stefan Institute, the ARNES academic and research network, several Slovenian universities, the Ljubljana Technology Park, and the Slovenian Chamber of Commerce.
Greece: Pharos, Greece’s new AI factory
The Greek AI factory will focus on supporting national and European AI applications in healthcare, culture and language, and sustainability, including energy, environment, and climate. It will aim to provide comprehensive user support, from skill development and data access to AI model training and business innovation.
Pharos is led by a consortium that includes the National Centre for Scientific Research “Demokritos,” the Athena Research Center, the National Technical University of Athens, and the National Fund of Greece.
What’s next?
So far, 13 sites across Europe have been selected to host AI Factories. The hosting agreements with the first selected Hosting Entities have been signed, leading currently to the launch of the procurement process for the relevant systems, which is scheduled to take place in the first half of 2025. The hosting agreements are contractual documents that define the roles, rights and obligations of each party. The procurement process for the AI Factories is managed by EuroHPC JU.
By 2026, these AI Factories will be the backbone of Europe’s AI strategy, combining computing power, data, and talent to drive innovation and secure Europe’s leadership in AI.
