Proposal for a COUNCIL REGULATION amending Regulation (EU) 2021/1173 as regards an EuroHPC initiative for start-ups to boost European leadership in trustworthy Artificial Intelligence
Date: 2024-01-24
Institutions: Directorate-General for Communications Networks, Content and Technology, European Commission
Subjects: European Joint Undertaking, European undertaking, artificial intelligence, computer, computer system, data processing, high-performance computing, innovation, new technology, scientific cooperation

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   EUROPEAN COMMISSION  Brussels, 16.2.2024  COM(2024) 29 final/2 2024/0016 (NLE)  CORRIGENDUM This document corrects COM(2024)29 final of 24.1.2024 Concerns all languages versions  Change of interinstitutional acronym The text shall read as follows:  Proposal for a COUNCIL REGULATION amending Regulation (EU) 2021/1173 as regards an EuroHPC initiative for start-ups to boost European leadership in trustworthy Artificial Intelligence  
 
 
EXPLANATORY MEMORANDUM 

1. 

CONTEXT OF THE PROPOSAL 

in 

the  Union  a  world-leading 

Reasons for and objectives of the proposal 

• 
Council  Regulation  (EU)  2021/1173,1  repealing  Council  Regulation  (EU)  2018/1488,2 
establishes  the  European  High  Performance  Computing  Joint  Undertaking  and  sets  out  its 
mission  and  objectives.  The  Joint  Undertaking’s  mission  is  to  develop,  deploy,  extend  and 
federated,  secure  and  hyper-connected 
maintain 
supercomputing,  quantum  computing,  service  and  data  infrastructure  ecosystem;  to  support 
the development and uptake of demand-oriented and user-driven innovative and competitive 
supercomputing  systems  based  on  a  supply  chain  that  will  ensure  the  availability  of  
components,  technologies  and  knowledge,  limit  the  risk  of  disruption,  and  enable  the 
development  of  a  wide  range  of  applications  optimised  for  these  systems;  and  to  widen  the 
use of this supercomputing infrastructure to a large number of public and private users as well 
as  supporting  the  twin  digital  and  green  transitions  and  the  development  of  key  skills  for 
European science and industry. 
In her 2023 State of the Union Address,3 President Ursula von der Leyen announced a new 
initiative  to  make  the  Union’s  supercomputing  capacity  available  to  innovative  European 
startups in trustworthy artificial intelligence (AI) to train their models. These models require 
substantial amounts of computing power to train and finetune the most advanced foundation 
models  in  order  to  unlock  the  full  potential  of  AI,  a  requirement  that  can  be  met  only  with 
supercomputing. 

Given  that  the  Union’s  most  powerful  world-class  supercomputing  capacity  is  found  in  the 
European  High  Performance  Computing  (EuroHPC)  Joint  Undertaking’s  (the  “Joint 
Undertaking”) facilities, it is these facilities that will need to be made available in order for 
this initiative to become a reality. It is accordingly proposed to introduce a further objective 
for the Joint Undertaking, which will cover the contribution made by supercomputers to this 
new AI initiative of the Union.  

This new objective will allow the Joint Undertaking to support the further development of a 
highly competitive and innovative AI startup and research ecosystem in Europe, including the 
development and uptake of European AI solution, by operating AI Factories. It will consist of 
deploying  and  operating  AI  dedicated  supercomputers  co-located  with  large  data  centres  or 
connected to data centres via very high speed networks, enhancing the performance of these 
supercomputers  by  regularly  upgrading  their  AI  capabilities;  and,  providing  dedicated  AI 
oriented  supercomputing  services  in  support  of  the  AI  startup,  science  and  innovation 
ecosystem  for  the  large  scale  training  and  development  of  general  purpose,  trustworthy  and 
ethical AI models and systems, and of AI user communities for the development, validation 
and running of emerging AI applications, in particular in the areas of health and care, climate 
change,  robotics,  and  connected  and  automated  driving.  It  will  also  foster  a  talent 
development pool to provide advanced education, training, skilling and reskilling activities to 
relevant  AI  stakeholders.  The  AI  Factories  will  establish  synergies  at  EU  level  and  will 
cooperate  with  and  federate  other  relevant  Union  AI  initiatives,  such  as  the  Artificial 

1 

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3 

Council Regulation (EU) 2021/1173 of 13 July 2021 on establishing the European High Performance 
Computing Joint Undertaking and repealing Regulation (EU) 2018/1488 (OJ L 256 19.7.21 p. 3). 
Council  Regulation  (EU)  2018/1488  of  28  September  2018  establishing  the  European  High 
Performance Computing Joint Undertaking (OJ L 252, 8.10.2018, p. 1). 
https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/speech_23_4426 

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Intelligence  On-Demand  platform,  the  AI  Testing  and  Experimentation  Facilities,  the 
EuroHPC Competence Centres, the EuroHPC Centres of Excellence, and any other emerging 
European  AI  initiative.  These  changes  will  enable  the  Joint  Undertaking  to  offer  tailored 
computing power and services to nurture large-scale AI training and development and uptake 
in the Union, which the current Regulation does not specifically foresee. 

• 

Consistency with existing policy provisions in the policy area 

The objective of this proposal is to widen the scope of Council Regulation (EU) 2021/1173 of 
13 July 2021 on establishing the European High Performance Computing Joint Undertaking 
and  repealing  Regulation  (EU)  2018/1488  in  order  to  enable  the  Union  to  respond  to  new 
technological  developments  and  strategic  imperatives,  namely  the  development  of  AI 
softwares  and  infrastructures,  and  to  the  need  to  open  up  supercomputing  technologies  to 
startups. 

• 

Consistency with other Union policies 

This proposal is fully in line with other Union policies, especially those policies enacted under 
the Commission priority ‘A Europe fit for the digital age’.  

2. 

• 

LEGAL BASIS, SUBSIDIARITY AND PROPORTIONALITY 

Legal basis 

The legal basis of the proposed amended Regulation  is Article 187 and the first paragraph of 
Article 188 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union.  

• 

Subsidiarity  

The  subsidiarity  principle  applies  insofar  as  the  proposal  does  not  fall  under  the  exclusive 
competence of the Union. 

The  Council  Regulation  (EU)  2021/1173  complies  with  the  subsidiarity  principle  as  its 
objectives, namely the strengthening of research and innovation capabilities, the acquisition of 
supercomputers  and  quantum  computers,  and  access  to  high  performance  computing, 
quantum computing and data infrastructure across the Union by means of a Joint Undertaking, 
cannot be sufficiently achieved by the Member States, but can rather, by reason of avoiding 
unnecessary duplication, retaining critical mass and ensuring that public financing is used in 
an optimal way, be better achieved at EU level.  

The  growth  in  the  importance  of  HPC  for  science,  the  public  and  private  sectors  in  recent 
years has been accompanied by an exponential rise in the level of investment required to stay 
globally competitive. This is exacerbated by the recent surge in  cost of the accelerators that 
are indispensable to stay competitive at global scale for the development and training of the 
large  Artificial  Intelligence  models.  This  has  led  to  a  widespread  recognition  that  the 
provision of shared infrastructure and common use of existing capabilities would benefit the 
European  Artificial  Intelligence  community  in  all  Member  States.  This  includes  Member 
States that may have difficulties in creating self-sufficient national HPC infrastructures while 
they can make valuable  contributions  to  and benefit from  federated and interconnected EU-
level HPC capabilities.  

The  proposed  amendment  will  enable  the  Joint  Undertaking  to  make  its  supercomputing 
capacity available to innovative European startups, in order to foster the development, testing 
and validation of AI solutions, to enable the large scale training and development of general 
purpose,  trustworthy  and  ethical  AI  models  and  systems,  thus  strengthening  Europe’s 
competitiveness  and  industrial  base  in  AI.  Only  common  action  of  this  kind  at  Union  level 

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can  enhance  thetechnological  sovereignty  and    Union’s  economic  security  and  leverage  its 
tools  and  regulatory  powers  to  shape  global  rules  and  standards  in  AI,  at  the  same  time 
significantly contributing to AI uptake in European industry, research and public services. 

• 

Proportionality 

The  proposal  complies  with  the  principle  of  proportionality  as  set  out  in  Article  5  of  the 
Treaty on European Union, as it consists of an effective cooperation framework, suited to all 
intervention  areas  of  this  initiative,  does  not  go  beyond  what  is  necessary  to  solve  the 
problems identified and is proportionate to its objectives. 

• 

Choice of the instrument 

The creation and operation of a Joint Undertaking in which the Union participates requires a 
Council Regulation, to which an amendment is now being proposed. 

3. 

RESULTS 
CONSULTATIONS AND IMPACT ASSESSMENTS 

EX-POST 

EVALUATIONS, 

OF 

STAKEHOLDER 

Not  applicable.  This  is  an  amendment  to  an  existing  Regulation,  therefore,  no  ex-post 
evaluation, stakeholder consultation, or impact assessment has been performed. 

4. 

BUDGETARY IMPLICATIONS 

No  additional  resources  will  be  required  from  the  EU  budget,  but  the  proposed  measures 
concern a redeployment of the resources available in the Joint Undertaking.  

5. 

• 

OTHER ELEMENTS 

Detailed explanation of the specific provisions of the proposal 

The amendment to the Regulation enlarges its scope in order to introduce a further objective 
to the existing six objectives of the Joint Undertaking: to develop and operate the AI Factories 
in support of the further development of a highly competitive and innovative AI ecosystem in 
the  Union.  The  inclusion  of  this  objective  is  intended  to  address  the  unique 
considerations  and  requirements  associated  with  the  deployment  and  operation  of 
computational systems required for the development, training and running of large scale 
AI  models.  It  should  be  clarified  that  the  amendment  introduces  a  single  change:  the 
inclusion of AI Factories within the scope of the Regulation. 

This is in response to the major technological and regulatory developments in the field of AI 
that have taken place since the original Regulation came into force in 2021. 

The amendment does not affect the obligations of the Member States participating in the Joint 
Undertaking to comply with State aid principles. Council Regulation (EU) 2021/1173 already 
includes provisions in this regard: specifying in its Recital (59) that any funding from Union 
programmes  should  be  consistent  with  State  aid  principles  to  ensure  the  effectiveness  of 
public  spending  and  prevent  market  distorsions;  and  specifying  under  Article  7  that  the 
contributions from the Member States to its beneficiaries should be without prejudice to State 
aid rules. 

In  the  light  of  these  developments,  the  new  proposed  point  3b  of  Article  2  3b  presents  the 
definition  of  an  AI  dedicated  supercomputer  and  point  3c  of  this  Article  presents  the 

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definition  of  an  AI  Factory.  Point  9  of  Article  2  is  amended  to    include  the  AI  dedicated 
supercomputers  as  another  category  of  EuroHPC  supercomputers.  A  new  point  h  of  Article 
3(2) presents the Joint Undertaking’s new objective to develop and operate the AI Factories in 
support  of  the  further  development  of  a  highly  competitive  and  innovative  AI  ecosystem  in 
the Union, while a new point h is added to Article 4(1) which defines the Joint Undertaking’s 
new AI-focused  pillar of activity.  Articles 9(5) point g, 10(2) point (1), 16(1) and 17(1) are 
also amended in this regard. 

A  new  Article  12a  covers  provisions  for  the  acquisition  and  ownership  of  AI  dedicated 
supercomputers  by  the  Joint  Undertaking.  Article  16(1b)  and  16(2b)  set  out  how  these 
supercomputers will be used, and their access conditions.  

Article  15  is  adapted  to  provide  more  flexibility  for  upgrading  the  existing  EuroHPC 
supercomputers, including with a view to enhancing their Artificial Intelligence capabilities. 
The  original  EuroHPC  Article  15  was  intended  to  permit  a  timely  upgrade  of  the 
supercomputers  to  extend  their  capabilities  or  operational  lifetime.  This  set  clear  limits  to 
keep the prioritise investment in the  acquisition of new supercomputers.  However,  it turned 
out  that  this  limit  did  not  allow  to  take  most  advantage  of  the  existing  EuroHPC 
supercomputers  in  view  of  maximising  the  return  on  investment.  The  deployment  of  the 
EuroHPC  supercomputing  infrastructure  took  a  delay  of  up  to  two  years  because  of  the 
the  EuroHPC 
COVID  crisis,  notably  due 
supercomputers  have  not  reached  the  end  of  their  operational  lifetime  it  is  much  more  cost 
effective  to  upgrade  the  capabilities  of  the  existing  EuroHPC  supercomputers  rather  than 
acquiring new supercomputers of sufficient computing performance. 

the  scarcity  of  microprocessors.  As 

to 

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2024/0016 (NLE) 

Proposal for a 

COUNCIL REGULATION 

amending Regulation (EU) 2021/1173 as regards an EuroHPC initiative for start-ups to 
boost European leadership in trustworthy Artificial Intelligence 

THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION, 

Having  regard  to  the  Treaty  on  the  Functioning  of  the  European  Union,  and  in  particular 
Article 187 and Article 188, first paragraph, thereof, 

Having regard to the proposal from the European Commission, 
Having regard to the opinion of the European Parliament4, 
Having regard to the opinion of the European Economic and Social Committee5, 

Acting in accordance with a special legislative procedure, 

Whereas: 

(1) 

(2) 

(3) 

4 
5 
6 

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Regulation (EU) 2024/… of the European Parliament and of the Council6 laying down 
harmonised  rules  on  artificial  intelligence  (the  “Artificial  Intelligence  Act”)  aims  to 
improve  the  functioning  of  the  internal  market  by  laying  down  a  uniform  legal 
framework  in  particular  for  the  development,  marketing  and  use  of  artificial 
intelligence in conformity with Union values.  
Since  2021,  when  Council  Regulation  (EU)  2021/11737  was  adopted,  the  field  of 
artificial intelligence (AI) has seen enormous technical progress and become a highly 
strategic  and  contested  domain  globally.  The  Union  is  at  the  forefront  of  efforts  to 
support  responsible  innovation  in 
trustworthy  AI,  while  setting guardrails and 
developing effective governance. 

On  13  September  2023,  as  part  of  a  comprehensive  approach  to  support  responsible 
innovation  in  AI,  the  Commission  announced  a  new  strategic  initiative  to  make  the 
Union’s  high-performance  computing  capacity  available  to  innovative  European 
startups  in  trustworthy  AI  to  train  their  models.  That  complements  work  on  setting 
guardrails  for  AI  through  Regulation  (EU)  2024/…  ,  establishing  governance 
structures,  and  supporting  innovation  through  the  Coordinated  Plan  on  Artificial 
Intelligence.   

OJ C , , p. . 
Opinion of.., OJ C, p. 
Regulation (EU) 2024/… of the European Parliament and of the Council laying down harmonised rules 
on artificial intelligence (Artificial Intelligence Act) and amending certain union legislative acts (OJ L 
…). 
Council Regulation (EU) 2021/1173 of 13 July  2021 on establishing the European High Performance 
Computing  Joint  Undertaking  and  repealing  Regulation  (EU)  2018/1488  (OJ  L  256,  19.7.2021,  p.  3, 
ELI: http://data.europa.eu/eli/reg/2021/1173/oj). 

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(4) 

(5) 

Given that the  Union’s  most powerful  world-class  supercomputing  capacity is  found 
in  the  European  High  Performance  Computing  Joint  Undertaking’s  (the  “Joint 
Undertaking”) facilities, it is those facilities that should be made available in order for 
the  Commission’s  initiative  to  become  a  reality.  It  is  accordingly  necessary  to 
introduce a further objective to the existing six objectives of the Joint Undertaking that 
would cover the contribution made by its supercomputers to the new AI initiative of 
the Union.  

The  new  objective  would  allow  the  Joint  Undertaking  to  perform  activities  in  the 
domains  of  acquiring  and  operating  AI-dedicated  supercomputers  or  partitions  of 
supercomputers  to  enable  fast  machine  learning  and  training  of  large  AI  foundation 
models. The Joint Undertaking should also be allowed to create a new access mode to 
its computing  resources  for AI startups  and the  wider scientific community active in 
AI and to develop dedicated AI applications optimized to run on  its supercomputers. 
Those changes would enable the Joint Undertaking to offer tailored computing power 
and  services  to  nurture  large-scale  AI  training  and  development  and  uptake  in  the 
Union, which is not feasible under the current Regulation.  

(6) 

In order to align the application date of this Regulation with the application date of the 
provisions of Regulation (EU) 2024/… of the European Parliament and of the Council 
laying down harmonised rules on artificial intelligence, it should apply without undue 
delay. 

(7) 

Regulation (EU) 2021/1173 should therefore be amended accordingly, 

HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION: 

Regulation (EU) 2021/1173 is amended as follows:  

Article 1 

(1) 

(a) 

Article 2 is amended as follows: 

the following points (3a) and (3b) are inserted: 

‘(3b) ‘Artificial Intelligence-dedicated supercomputer’ means a supercomputer that is 
primarily  designed  for  training  large  scale,  general-purpose  artificial  intelligence 
models and emerging artificial intelligence applications; 
(3c)  ‘Artificial  Intelligence  Factory’  means  a  centralised  or  distributed  entity 
providing  an  Artificial  Intelligence  supercomputing  service  infrastructure  which  is 
composed  of  an  Artificial  Intelligence-dedicated  supercomputer  or  Artificial 
Intelligence  partition  of  supercomputer,  an  associated  data  centre,  dedicated  access 
and artificial intelligence-oriented supercomputing services and attracting and pooling 
talent to provide the competences required in using the supercomputers for Artificial 
Intelligence;’; 

(b) 

point (9) is replaced by the following: 

‘(9) 'EuroHPC supercomputer' means any computing system fully owned by the Joint 
Undertaking  or  co-owned  with  other  Participating  States  or  a  consortium  of  private 
partners, which can be a classical supercomputer (high-end supercomputer, industrial-
grade  supercomputer,  Artificial  Intelligence-dedicated  supercomputer  or  mid-range 
supercomputer),  a  hybrid  classical-quantum  computer,  a  quantum  computer  or  a 
quantum simulator;’; 

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(2) 

in Article 3(2), the following point (h) is added: 

‘(h)   to  develop  and  operate  the  Artificial  Intelligence  Factories  in  support  of  the 
further  development  of  a  highly  competitive  and  innovative  Artificial 
Intelligence ecosystem in the Union’; 

(3) 

in Article 4(1), the following point (h) is added: 

‘(h)  Artificial  Intelligence  Factory  pillar  for  trustworthy  and  ethical  Artificial 
Intelligence,  covering  activities for the provision  of an  Artificial  Intelligence-
oriented  supercomputing  service  infrastructure  that  is  aiming  at  further 
developing  the  innovation  capabilities  and  skills  of  the  Artificial  Intelligence 
ecosystem; it shall include the following activities: 

(i) 

the  acquisition  and  operation  of  Artificial  Intelligence-dedicated 
supercomputers  co-located  with  large  data  centres  or  connected  to  data 
centres via very high speed networks; 

(ii) 

the  upgrade  of  existing  EuroHPC  supercomputers  with  Artificial 
Intelligence capabilities; 

(iii)  providing  access  to  the  Artificial  Intelligence-dedicated  supercomputers 
or  EuroHPC  supercomputers  upgraded  with  Artificial  Intelligence, 
including  widening  their  use  to  a  large  number  of  public  and  private 
users, including startups and small and medium-sized enterprises;  

(iv) 

the operation of centralised or distributed Artificial Intelligence-oriented 
supercomputing  service  centres  in  support  of  the  Artificial  Intelligence 
startup  and  research  and  innovation  ecosystem  providing  algorithmic 
support, support for the further development, training, testing, evaluation 
and validation of Artificial Intelligence training models and systems, and 
support  for 
large-scale  Artificial 
Intelligence  applications  in  strategic  areas  such  as  health  and  care, 
climate change, robotics, or connected and automated driving.  

the  development  of  emerging 

(v) 

the  operation  of 
facilities, 
including for the parallelisation of Artificial Intelligence applications for 
optimising the use of supercomputing capabilities;  

supercomputer-friendly  programming 

(vi) 

the  operation  of  other  Artificial  Intelligence-enabling  supercomputing 
services; 

(vii)  attracting,  pooling  and  training  talent  to  develop  their  competences  and 

skills in using the EuroHPC supercomputers for Artificial Intelligence; 

(viii)  interacting  with  the  other  Artificial  Intelligence  Factories,  making  their 
services  accessible  across  Europe  and  cooperating  with  the  EuroHPC 
Competence  Centres  and  Centres  of  Excellence,  and  with  relevant 
Artificial  Intelligence  initiatives  of  the  Union,  such  as  the  hubs  of 
Artificial  Intelligence  startups,  the  Artificial  Intelligence  and  data 
ecosystems,  the  Artificial  Intelligence  Testing  and  Experimentation 
Facilities,  the  European  central  Artificial  Intelligence  platform,  the 
Artificial  Intelligence-oriented  Digital  Innovation  Hubs,  the  Artificial 
Intelligence  related  European  Instititute  of  Innovation  and  Technology 

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Knowledge  and  Innovation  Communities,  relevant  European  research 
infrastructures and other related initiatives. 

 (4) 

in Article 9(5), the following point (g) is added:  

‘(g) for the Artificial Intelligence-dedicated supercomputers the following additional 

selection criteria shall apply for the hosting entities: 

(i)  proximity with an established datacentre; 

(ii)  vision, plans and capability of the hosting entity to address the challenges 
of the Artificial Intelligence startup and research and innovation ecosystem 
and the Artificial Intelligence user community and providing a supportive 
centralised  or  distributed  Artificial  Intelligence-oriented  supercomputing 
service; 

(iii) quality  and  pertinence  of  experience  and  know-how  available  at  the 
intended  team  that  would  be  in  charge  for  the  supportive  Artificial 
Intelligence-oriented supercomputing service environment; 

(iv)  plans  for  interaction  and  cooperation  with  other  Artificial  Intelligence 
Factories,  with  EuroHPC  Competence  Centres  and  EuroHPC  Centres  of 
Excellence  and  with  relevant  Artificial  Intelligence  activities  such  as  the 
hubs of Artificial Intelligence startups, the Artificial Intelligence and data 
ecosystems,  the  Artificial  Intelligence  Testing  and  Experimentation 
Facilities,  the  European  central  Artificial  Intelligence  platform,  the 
Artificial  Intelligence-oriented  Digital  Innovation  Hubs  and  other  related 
initiatives; 

(v) existing  capabilities and future plans of the  hosting  entity  to  contribute to 

the development of the talent pool’; 

(5) 

in Article 9, the following paragraph (6a) is added: 

(6a)  For  the  Artificial  Intelligence  dedicated  supercomputers  referred  to  in  Article 
12a,  the  hosting  entity  shall  create  a  one-stop  shop  for  the  startups  and  other 
users to facilitate access to its support services. 

(6) 

in Article 10(2), point (l) is replaced by the following: 

‘(l)  the  specific  conditions  applicable  when  the  hosting  entity  operates  a  EuroHPC 
supercomputer  for  industrial  usage,  or  an  Artificial  Intelligence-dedicated 
supercomputer.’; 

(7) 

the following Article 12a is inserted: 

‘Article 12a 

Acquisition and ownership of Artificial Intelligence-dedicated supercomputers 

1. 

2. 

The Joint Undertaking shall acquire Artificial Intelligence-dedicated supercomputers 
and shall own them. 

The Union financial contribution referred to in Article 5(1) shall cover up to 50 % of 
the  acquisition  costs  plus  up  to  50  %  of  the  operating  costs  of  the  Artificial 
Intelligence-dedicated supercomputers. 

The  remaining  total  cost  of  ownership  of  the  Artificial  Intelligence-dedicated 
supercomputers shall be covered by the Participating State where the hosting entity is 

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3. 

4. 

5. 

6. 

7. 

established  or  by  the  Participating  States  in  the  hosting  consortium,  possibly 
supplemented by the contributions referred to in Article 6. 

The selection of the supplier of the Artificial Intelligence-dedicated supercomputers 
shall  be  based  on  tender  specifications  that  shall  be  demand-driven,  shall  take  into 
account the user requirements and the general system specifications provided by the 
selected  hosting  entity  in  its  application  for  the  call  for  expression  of  interest.  The 
selection shall also address the security of the supply chain. 

The  Joint  Undertaking  may  act  as  first  user  of  Artificial  Intelligence-dedicated 
supercomputers that integrate technologies primarily developed in the Union. 

The  Governing  Board  may  decide  in  the  work  programme,  if  duly  justified  for 
security reasons, to condition the participation of suppliers in the acquisition of the 
Artificial Intelligence-dedicated supercomputers in accordance with Article 12(6) of 
Regulation  (EU) 2021/694  or  to  limit  the  participation  of  suppliers  for  security 
reasons  or  actions directly  related to  the Union's strategic autonomy, in  accordance 
with Article 18(4) of that Regulation. 

The  Artificial  Intelligence-dedicated  supercomputers  shall  be  located  in  a  hosting 
entity of a EuroHPC supercomputer located in the Union.  

Without  prejudice  to  the  winding  up  of  the  Joint  Undertaking,  as  referred  to  in 
Article 23(4) of the Statutes, at the earliest four years after the successful acceptance 
test  by  the  Artificial  Intelligence-dedicated  supercomputer  installed  in  a  hosting 
entity,  the ownership of the Artificial  Intelligence-dedicated supercomputer may be 
transferred  to  that  hosting  entity,  sold  to  another  entity  or  decommissioned  upon 
decision of the Governing Board  and in  accordance with  the hosting  agreement.  In 
the  case  of 
Intelligence-dedicated 
supercomputer, the hosting entity shall reimburse the Joint Undertaking the residual 
value of the supercomputer that is transferred. If there is no transfer of ownership to 
the  hosting  entity  but  a  decision  for  decommissioning,  the  relevant  costs  shall  be 
shared  equally  by  the  Joint  Undertaking  and  the  hosting  entity.  The  Joint 
Undertaking shall not be liable for any costs incurred after the transfer of ownership 
of 
its  sale  or 
decommissioning.’ 

the  Artificial  Intelligence-dedicated  supercomputer  or  after 

transfer  of  ownership  of  a  Artificial 

(8) 

(a) 

Article 15 is amended as follows: 

paragraph 1 is replaced by the following: 

‘1. The Joint Undertaking may launch a call for expressions of interest to upgrade the 
EuroHPC  supercomputers  it  owns  or  co-owns,  to  raise  the  performance  level  of  the 
supercomputer  close  to  exascale,  or  for  increasing  the  Artificial  intelligence 
capabilities of  the supercomputer,  or to  increase the operational  performance of  the 
supercomputer  in  any  other  way,  including  quantum  accelerators.’;  paragraph  2  is 
deleted; 

(b) 

 5 is replaced by the following: 

‘5. The percentage of the Union’s financial contribution for the acquisition costs of the 
upgrade shall be the same as the percentage of the Union’s financial contribution for 
the  original  EuroHPC  supercomputer,  depreciated  over  the  expected  remaining 
lifetime  of  the  original  supercomputer.  The  percentage  of  the  Union’s  financial 
contribution for the additional operational costs of the upgrade shall be the same as the 

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percentage  of 
supercomputer.’; 

the  Union’s  financial  contribution  for 

the  original  EuroHPC 

(9) 

(a) 

Article 16 is amended as follows: 

the following paragraph 1b is inserted: 

supercomputers 

Intelligence-dedicated 

‘1b.  The  Artificial 
and  EuroHPC 
supercomputers upgraded for Artificial Intelligence capabilities shall primarily be used 
for the development, testing, evaluation, and validation of large scale, general purpose 
artificial intelligence training models and emerging Artificial Intelligence applications, 
as well as for the further development of artificial intelligence solutions in the Union 
requiring  High  Performance  Computing  and  the  execution  of  large-scale  Artificial 
Intelligence algorithms for the resolution of science problems.’; 

(b) 

the following paragraph 2b is inserted: 

‘2b.  The  Governing  Board  shall  define  special  access  conditions  for  the  Artificial 
Intelligence-dedicated supercomputers and the EuroHPC supercomputers upgraded for 
Artificial  Intelligence  capabilities  in  accordance  with  Article  17  taking  into  account 
the  specific  needs  of  the  Artificial  Intelligence  startup  and  research  ecosystem.  This 
shall include dedicated access to startups. Only proposals for developing trustworthy 
and  ethical  Artificial  Intelligence  models,  systems  and  applications    that  arein  line 
with EU values shall be eligible for access.’ 

(10) 

Article 17, paragraph 1 is replaced by the following: 

‘1.  The  share  of  the  Union's  access  time  to  each  high-end,  quantum,  and  Artificial 
Intelligence-dedicated  EuroHPC  supercomputer  shall  be  directly  proportional  to  the 
financial  contribution  of  the  Union  referred  to  in  Article  5(1)  to  the  total  cost  of 
ownership of the EuroHPC supercomputer and shall thus not exceed 50 % of the total 
access time of the EuroHPC supercomputer.’ 

This Regulation shall enter into force on the twentieth day following that of its publication in 
the Official Journal of the European Union. 

Article 2 

This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and directly applicable in all Member States. 

Done at Brussels, 

For the Council 
The President 

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