Lithuania wins EU bid to set up 1st EUR 130 mln AI factory

VILNIUS - A Lithuanian consortium has secured 65 million euros in EU co-financing to establish LitAI, a 130-million-euro artificial intelligence (AI) factory that will be the only facility of its scale in the Baltic states.

The Economy and Innovation Ministry said that 50 percent of the project's funding will come from the EuroHPC Joint Undertaking under EU programs.

"The LitAI factory will not only help boost our research and innovation capacity but will also directly contribute to economic growth and the spread of advanced technologies across the country," Economy and Innovation Minister Edvinas Griksas said in a press release.

"This is a project that can not only generate up to 360 million euros in economic return but will also help the state operate more efficiently, quickly and securely," Deputy Minister Paulius Petrauskas said.

According to the ministry, the center will transform Lithuania's high-performance computing (HPC) capabilities for AI workloads by building an independent, AI-optimized system capable of serving both national and European strategic needs.

The project will be led by Vilnius University and the host site of the facility will be the Lithuanian Radio and Television Center's VDC3 data center in Vilnius.