Possibly it’ll be as soon as 2030. Or even 2028. We’ll have to see. The question: how soon will the AI Factory reasonably automatise the slew of obligations banks have when onboarding startups? If it can be done, it would put an end to years of woe. (Although economy minister Lex Delles, DP, reminds us that the government has already launched initiatives with the banking sector, including one in early 2024, when nearly €3m in public funds was sunk into a project, together with BGL BNP Paribas and the SnT, on the ethics and robustness of AI in banking.)

Announced in December, Luxembourg’s AI Factory, one of seven such projects--following an initial six--will boost creativity and the emergence of solutions in the four areas that Luxembourg has selected: the financial centre; space, which no other country has chosen; sustainability; and cybersecurity. Unlike so-called “algorithm factories,” this project by the European Union will be honed to particular needs. 

Between April and October 2026, we will thus meet Meluxina AI, the second supercomputer after the Meluxina HPC. It will be located at LuxProvide/LuxConnect, in order to take advantage of the Clarence sovereign cloud, set up with Proximus and Google. The AI Factory has a host of local partners, namely the Lhoft, the Luxembourg Space Agency, the Luxembourg House of Cybersecurity, the Digital Learning Hub, the Technoport, Deep and Clarence. The idea is to offer a “one-stop shop” unlike any other in Europe for companies exploring artificial intelligence capabilities, the potential for transformation and development, and the implementation of AI projects. Luxinnovation will “run” this shop while the state will deploy two new aid packages for SMEs: an AI SME package for getting started and a Fit4AI package.

Honey for talent

For her part, research and higher education minister Stéphanie Obertin (DP) spoke of a legal framework for exploiting these advances, stressing two other aspects: the impact of this shop on simplification for businesses and the public-private partnerships that show that “everyone is working together.”

The AI Factory is financed by Europe (EuroHPC) for 50% of the capacities, i.e. more than €60m for Luxembourg, which isn’t much of a luxury. More than 85% of the Meluxina HPC's capacity has already been booked, including some for Luxembourg research and around 50 startups. The new capabilities will increase the AI potential of this supercomputer tenfold. The project is presented by a consortium that brings together the Luxembourg National Data Service, the University of Luxembourg and the Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology,

The AI Factory may also affect the war for talent, adds Luxprovide CEO Arnaud Lambert: “Not only is there already talent in Luxembourg, but what attracts new talent are the projects, especially in sectors such as space, cybersecurity or finance.”

In his first official outing as the new CEO of Luxinnovation, Mario Grotz announced that the first eight people had been recruited for the one-stop-shop, tasked with raising awareness among companies or to act as project managers alongside them. “Though we already had experts in all the verticals of the agency’s activities,” said Grotz, who replaced Sasha Baillie as head of the public innovation agency.

This article was originally published in French.