UK based NexGen Cloud is building a $1 billion AI Supercloud in Europe
Sustainable cloud provider NexGen Cloud has announced plans and funding for one of Europe's first AI supercloud deployments. The goal is to support AI enterprise development and growth in the continent.
UK's NexGen Cloud, an NVIDIA partner, will devote $1 billion to the European AI supercloud, and $576 million has already been committed to hardware purchase orders. The supercloud will offer a dedicated platform for AI applications and research within European privacy laws.
This comes in the wake of accelerated demand for augmented computing as the tech industry adopts generative AI and other AI innovations. Plans are for the supercloud to provide regional, cost-effective GPU cloud access for European companies and startups.
NexGen will deliver supercloud services from 100% renewable energy data centers in Europe and server business in all sectors including healthcare, finance, and media.
According to the cloud provider, the supercloud will have over 20,000 NVIDIA H100 GPUs by June 2024. This will give enterprises one of the world's most powerful GPU-accelerated platforms.
“AI is going to determine the economic success of nations and define the prosperity of their citizens. The AI Supercloud will empower businesses to gain competitive advantages in the next evolution of technology, all within the European jurisdiction and the data sovereignty and security that brings,” said Chris Starkey, CEO of NexGen Cloud before adding that his company’s collaboration with Nvidia will be key in ensuring their customers are ahead of their competition.
Commenting on the issue, Jaap Zuiderveld, vice president of sales and marketing for EMEA at NVIDIA had this to say.
“NVIDIA compute power is the engine behind businesses looking to use the power of generative AI. The NexGen Cloud AI Supercloud will provide businesses across Europe with access to this high-end compute power, unlocking the true potential of AI and high-performance computing innovations to help them stay competitive in an evolving global economy.”
NexGen Cloud is working with Moore and Moore Investments to finance the project.
Over the next 12 months, customers can access the AI supercloud through Hyperstack, an NVIDIA GPU-accelerated cloud platform that enables direct-to-compute, GPU-accelerated cloud access for the European market.
The company has set its first deployment to October and is already taking pre-orders.
“The breakthroughs in AI technology and large language models in the past year represent a major moment for enterprises but has so far remained inaccessible to private investors,” said John Moore, director of MMI. “The Hyperstack AI Supercloud represents a powerful way to drive AI use, meeting compute demand, whilst also democratising access to some of the most powerful GPU systems on the market. We believe firmly in the potential of this deployment and are excited to open up the opportunity in this venture to our investors.”