Sovereign AI Fund

Sovereign AI Fund is sponsored by European Union. The European Union has established a €500 million sovereign AI fund to support AI development and infrastructure.

European research development and deployment of AI | Shaping Europe’s digital future European research development and deployment of AI The EU is spearheading AI research, collaborating with scientists, and funding projects to achieve excellence in frontier AI and foster AI “made in Europe”. Science and technological advances are the driving forces that improve AI and its application in multiple domains.

EU researchers are already harnessing AI in groundbreaking ways, from improving cancer treatments to solving environmental issues and improving earthquakes’ impact predictions. The Commission enables AI research through different strategies.

The 2020 White Paper on AI , the coordinated plans on AI , the AI Innovation Package and the AI Continent action plan , the AI in Science strategy and the Apply AI strategy emphasise the importance of developing and deploying AI that is trustworthy and aligned with European values. The AI Office is actively driving the implementation of these strategies, alongside its key role in enforcing the AI Act.

It also also monitors emerging trends and stimulates the adoption of AI, in cooperation with the European Digital Innovation Hubs . Besides, the AI Office’s Lead Scientific Adviser upholds the standard of scientific excellence in the evaluation of AI models and the exploration of innovative methodologies.

Funding and scaling AI innovation Through the Horizon Europe and Digital Europe programmes, the Commission invests more than EUR 1 billion per year in AI, with measures to fund and scale innovative ideas and solutions. The aim is to mobilise additional investments from the private sector and the Member States to reach an annual investment volume of EUR 20 billion over the course of this decade.

Horizon Europe , the primary EU research funding programme, allocated EUR 2. 6 billion to AI research and development for the years 2021-2022. Also under Horizon Europe, several calls were launched in April 2024, with over EUR 112 million in funding for AI and quantum technology projects.

This includes EUR 50 million for advancing large AI models, EUR 15 million for enhancing AI transparency and reliability. In parallel, the Digital Europe Programme has dedicated over EUR 1 billion in 2021-2024 to support the development and deployment of AI.

The AI Innovation Package has reinforced investment in AI research and deployment with the announcement of multiple initiatives valued at up to EUR 4 billion for the period 2024-2027. These initiatives will support the development of the new wave of generative AI technologies and their deployment in key EU industrial sectors and the public sector.

The EU has also funded a large number of projects in the field of AI with both Horizon Europe and Horizon 2020 (EU's research and innovation funding programme from 2014-2020). These projects worked on solutions in fields as diverse as agriculture, healthcare, manufacturing, and transport. AI applications already show direct benefit to citizens in areas such as health, environment, and the fight against disinformation.

The number of projects focused on AI or using AI tools funded by Horizon 2020 and Horizon Europe has been growing year by year. From creating an ecosystem of excellence to Frontier AI These and other strategic actions and investments are enabling the conditions for the development and uptake of AI , but also achieving excellence in frontier AI. Frontier AI refers to AI models that advance state-of-the-art AI capabilities.

Building such capabilities in Europe and strengthening Europe’s position to access, choose control and benefit from any frontier AI model will be foundational to the EU’s competitiveness, sovereignty and security. The EU aims to create a thriving ecosystem for startups, driven by excellence and trust, that enables innovation and capitalises on Europe’s strong scientific base, high-quality education, and talented researchers.

The Apply AI Strategy launched a frontier AI grand challenge, an EU-wide competition to drive the development of sovereign, large-scale European AI models. The challenge invited leading European actors to develop frontier AI models with a computational capacity equivalent to at least 400 billion parameters. The leading project was selected in June 2026 .

The Commission also gathered an expert forum on frontier AI to map existing efforts in frontier AI, address challenges and bottlenecks, and identify opportunities. Recommendations from these experts were published in July 2026 . The Commission is also working to unlock advanced capabilities through cutting-edge AI architectures and high-quality data, leveraging the computing capacity offered by the AI Factories and Gigafactories .

In parallel, the GenAI4EU initiative advances generative AI so that Europe’s strategic industries and public sector stay competitive. It fosters open innovation ecosystems, encouraging collaboration between AI startups and entities to develop and deploy AI-based applications.

The EU’s overall AI strategy includes initiatives to smooth the transition from the lab to the market , promote research, encourage AI adoption, and fund innovation. Key actions include fostering public-private partnerships, supporting AI research, providing testing facilities, and developing a European marketplace for AI solutions.

By building a marketplace for trustworthy AI solutions and mobilising research capabilities, the EU intends to become a global leader in AI. The European Networks of Excellence in AI (NoEs) bring together the brightest AI minds in Europe to tackle challenging AI problems. NoEs benefit from funding under both Horizon 2020 and Horizon Europe and are driving research and development forward.

These world-class networks encompass a significant portion of Europe's top AI expertise. They foster synergy and a critical mass in European AI to help translating AI advancements into tangible real-world impacts across various domains. These NoEs are also the starting point for the next chapter in AI research in Europe: Resource for AI Science in Europe (RAISE) .

RAISE will pool strategic resources (i.e. funding, data, computing capacity and talent) to push the development of frontier AI and enable scientific breakthrough discoveries. Policies promoting research These different initiatives are flanked by different policies working towards the common vision of Trustworthy AI. To support innovation, the AI Act has specific provisions related to scientific research.

The regulation is not applicable to any activities related to AI research, testing, and development before it is marketed or put into operation. This exemption does not apply to testing in real-world scenarios. It covers only AI systems (including their output) that were specifically developed and put into service for the sole purpose of scientific research and development.

This is because AI is gaining prominence in scientific research, driving breakthroughs, and pushing boundaries. The EU wants to accelerate the adoption of AI by scientists - through improved access to data, computational power, and training - but also to ensure the integrity and accuracy of the scientific process. To this end, the guidelines on the responsible use of generative AI in research were published in March 2024.

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