Scaleway launches AION to fuel Europe’s sovereign AI future
Scaleway has launched the AION consortium, aiming to create new infrastructure and platforms to support the European artificial intelligence (AI) ecosystem.
The AION initiative responds to the European Commission and EuroHPC Joint Undertaking's request for stakeholders to participate in developing future AI GigaFactories across the European Union.
Bringing together public, private, and academic institutions, AION seeks to support advanced and sovereign high-performance computing infrastructure for AI in Europe. Scaleway has emphasised its commitment to a strong, independent, and open AI ecosystem through this project.
Industry scale-up
Since 2023, Scaleway has operated France's first private AI compute cluster, providing nearly 5,000 GPUs to researchers and startups. This infrastructure is designed to support France's AI capacity by providing broader access to computing power for those developing AI technologies.
The company's recent partnership with Genci and CNRS for a public-private continuum in AI infrastructure further reinforced Scaleway's involvement in projects of national and European interest. This partnership aims to bridge resources and expertise to create more robust and collaborative AI development frameworks in France.
Expanding beyond its early efforts, the AION project involves deploying several next-generation GPU clusters, purportedly equivalent to more than 288,000 current-generation GPUs, such as the NVIDIA H100, which amounts to a total capacity of 200 megawatts. The scale targets increased availability of high-compute resources for AI research and applications across the continent.
Pillars of development
According to Scaleway, AION is built upon three key pillars. The first is ambition, marked by the deployment of globally competitive infrastructure funded by the iliad Group and its investment partners. The iliad Group has invested EUR €20 billion in infrastructure throughout Europe in the last ten years.
The second pillar is sovereignty, with an emphasis on ensuring control over the AI value chain, encompassing everything from hardware production to open-source software solutions, powered by sovereign European entities to enhance strategic autonomy in AI technologies.
The third pillar, openness, emphasises strong support for open-source technologies and promotes public-private partnerships within Europe to foster collaboration and transparency.
Consortium support
Scaleway has stated that its objective is to assemble a diverse and comprehensive consortium representing the breadth of expertise within the European technical community. Major partners who have already pledged support for AION include VSORA, Kyutai, Sopra Steria, SiPearl, Artefact, Eviden Bull, ZML, Hugging Face, and H company.
The initiative has also received endorsements from GENCI and Inria, both co-leaders of the AI Factory France project, underlining broad-based institutional backing for the endeavour.
Infrastructure and energy
OpCore, the iliad Group's joint venture focusing on data centres, will play a key role in enabling the hosting of AION's infrastructure in France. The project plans to use France's low-carbon energy mix and the reliability of its electricity network to support operations.
Damien Lucas, Scaleway's Chief Executive Officer, commented on the rationale behind the AION project:
"Europe can no longer afford to outsource the foundations of its AI future, and we welcome the initiative of the European authorities. With AION, we are offering more than just infrastructure – we want to contribute to the independence, resilience, and leadership of the European ecosystem. This is a decisive time for our continent, and we call on all AI tech leaders in France and Europe to join us on this project."
The launch of AION marks a further step in Scaleway's involvement in developing AI infrastructure within Europe, with the express objective of supporting digital sovereignty, capacity, and strategic collaboration within the sector.
