A serious public funding is being directed into Italy’s subsequent part of high-performance AI infrastructure, with a brand new AI supercomputer commissioned for the IT4LIA AI factory in Bologna.
The initiative is being led by the European High Performance Computing Joint Undertaking (EuroHPC JU) in partnership with E4 Pc Engineering and Dell Applied sciences.
The system kinds a part of a €290m programme masking procurement by way of to long-term operation. Funding is break up evenly, with assist from the Digital Europe Programme (DEP) and co-financing from Italy’s Ministry of College and Analysis.
When deployed, the platform, delivering greater than 160 exaflops of peak AI inference efficiency, will anchor Italy’s AI manufacturing unit inside a wider European community, delivering large-scale AI compute capability and increasing entry for startups, SMEs, and researchers engaged on data-intensive purposes.
Anders Jensen, Govt Director of EuroHPC JU, commented: “This signature marks one other vital milestone for Europe’s HPC and AI ambitions.
“With the IT4LIA system, we’re making a big funding in cutting-edge infrastructure that may empower startups, SMEs, and the analysis group to develop and deploy superior AI purposes at scale.
“IT4LIA won’t solely develop our computational capabilities, but in addition strengthen collaboration throughout the European innovation ecosystem, taking part in an vital position in reinforcing Europe’s competitiveness and management in AI.”
What’s the IT4LIA AI manufacturing unit designed to realize?
The IT4LIA AI manufacturing unit is a part of a wider EuroHPC initiative to determine a distributed community of AI factories throughout Europe. In complete, 19 amenities are being deployed, supported by 13 further antenna websites that stretch companies regionally.
Its core perform is sensible: to supply accessible, high-performance AI computing to companies and researchers that may in any other case lack the assets to construct or entry such methods.
The manufacturing unit mannequin focuses on utilized use circumstances, significantly for SMEs and startups, providing each infrastructure and technical assist.
Since April 2025, IT4LIA has already been operational utilizing present methods, together with the Leonardo supercomputer.
The brand new AI supercomputer represents a step-change in functionality, transitioning the positioning into a totally scaled AI manufacturing unit with devoted infrastructure for coaching and inference workloads.
How will the AI supercomputer be constructed, and what makes it distinct?
The system will likely be built-in by E4 Pc Engineering and manufactured by Dell Applied sciences.
It’s primarily based on liquid-cooled structure utilizing NVIDIA GB200 NVL4 know-how, combining NVIDIA Grace CPUs with Blackwell GPUs and interconnected through Quantum X800 InfiniBand networking.
This configuration is engineered for large-scale AI workloads, prioritising throughput, scalability, and power effectivity.
The projected efficiency of over 160 exaflops is concentrated particularly on AI inference fairly than general-purpose computation, aligning the system with real-world deployment wants.
A unified information layer will likely be delivered by way of the VAST Data platform, enabling streamlined information entry and administration throughout workloads.
The system additionally features a devoted inference partition that integrates accelerators from Axelera AI and CPUs from SiPearl, reinforcing European know-how contributions inside the stack.
Who will profit from this AI manufacturing unit and the way?
The first customers are startups and SMEs, which can achieve entry to superior AI computing with out the capital burden of constructing their very own infrastructure.
Nonetheless, entry just isn’t restricted to business. The broader analysis group will even be capable to use the system for the event, testing, and deployment of AI purposes.
The manufacturing unit provides each vertical and horizontal companies. Sector-specific assist consists of agritech, cybersecurity, local weather and meteorology, and manufacturing.
These are complemented by cross-sector instruments akin to safe information administration, compliance verification, and metadata companies.
Coaching and abilities growth are additionally central. The AI manufacturing unit is structured not simply as infrastructure, however as an ecosystem that helps adoption, from early experimentation by way of to deployment.
Why does this matter for Europe’s AI technique?
The IT4LIA mission is positioned as a part of a broader effort to construct a safe and sovereign AI infrastructure inside Europe.
By embedding compliance with EU information safety and privateness requirements, the system goals to make sure that AI growth aligns with regional regulatory frameworks.
A devoted European partition inside the AI supercomputer is meant to optimise inference workloads whereas sustaining management over delicate information. This displays a strategic emphasis on autonomy in each {hardware} and software program layers.
In sensible phrases, the AI manufacturing unit mannequin lowers boundaries to innovation whereas holding important capabilities beneath European management.
The deployment in Bologna alerts a shift from fragmented assets to coordinated, high-capacity AI infrastructure designed for sustained industrial and analysis use.
