The Czech AI Factory is something different from the AI gigafactory that has been discussed for some time. The European Commission wants to build five gigafactories, i.e. data centers with graphics cards, and the Czech Republic is interested in one. However, the project is dragging on and there is a lack of money, so the ambitions will probably have to be reduced in the end. In addition, a program of AI factories, i.e. significantly smaller data centers, has also been launched. The Czech Republic succeeded through IT4Innovations and even came in first place.
The Czech AI Factory as a whole will cost almost a billion crowns. Half of it will be provided by the European Commission through EuroHPC (a network of European supercomputers and quantum computers, one of which is also in Ostrava), the rest will come from the state budget through the Ministry of Education.
In Ostrava, a new supercomputer focused on the graphics card part will be purchased as part of the CZAI, and it will be named KarolAIna. According to the budget (11.25 million euros for acquisition and 8.75 million euros for five years of operation) and the expected performance (850 petaflops), there could be hundreds of them. The tender should be announced at the end of August, and the competition will be held through EuroHPC. However, the parameters are not clear, graphics from Nvidia and AMD are in short supply on the market, and delivery times are long.
“Given the current situation on the supplier market, we will first conduct preliminary market consultations, on the basis of which we will specify the tender documentation,” Zuzana Červenková, spokesperson for IT4Innovations, told Lupa.
But CZAI will not be “only” about the supercomputer. The involvement of other organizations will be important. An ecosystem is to be created within which computing power will be important, but also access to experts, consultations, and the like. 19.99 million euros will be allocated for services related to CZAI.
“The Czech Institute of Informatics, Robotics and Cybernetics (CIIRC CVUT) ensures the development of AI services in a wide range of areas in CZAI, cooperation with testbeds and industry, and building a national AI ecosystem. The Faculty of Electrical Engineering (FEL CVUT) is also involved in the project on behalf of CVAI. The International Neurodegenerative Disorders Research Center (INDRC), a private non-profit research institute, leads activities supporting business development and technology transfer and provides training in the areas of ethics, compliance with legal regulations, and innovation management. The Faculty of Mathematics and Physics of Charles University in Prague (MFF UK) contributes by developing language, multimodal, and other AI models and tools. Brno University of Technology (BUT) involves its top AI teams from the Faculty of Information Technology (FIT), Faculty of Civil Engineering (FCE), and Central European Institute of Technology (CEITEC) in CZAI in the areas of speech processing, cybersecurity, mobility, and medical applications, and leads the educational and training part of the project. The Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic (ÚOCHB) is involved in development of AI services for healthcare and life sciences and brings expertise in chemical biology and data-driven research,” the organizations summarized.
The specific offer should look like this: a supercomputer available to companies, academia and public administration, AI as a service (pre-trained foundation models, custom fine-tuning, scalable inference, library of verified use cases), AI helpdesk and copilot services for low-threshold user entry from companies and institutions without their own AI team, Training Academy (from basic AI literacy for application domain experts to advanced techniques for AI engineers), Deep-Tech Engine (accelerating the transition of startups and SMEs from prototype to production deployment), and open calls and pilot projects across five application sectors.