European Alliance Finally Releases LLM to Rival China, US
On January 29, the world witnessed the reveal of the first LLM in Europe, OpenEuroLLM, where an alliance of over 20 institutions created a multilingual, open-source AI model to safeguard the EU’s digital independence.
Open-source language models in Europe aren’t just about developing state-of-the-art technology but also about preserving European values, embracing innovation, and addressing the fragmented nature of previous AI efforts.
With funding of $53.63 million (€52 million) and a coalition of leading AI institutions, the strategic commitment by Europe is setting up an AI framework championing transparency, democracy, and cultural diversity, and most importantly compete with that of the US and China.
Single European AI Push
OpenEuroLLM project involves over 20 of the leading European research establishments, companies, and high-performance computing centers. It’s headed up by Jan Hajer from Charles University in Czechia, a computational linguist; and Peter Sarlin, co-founder with Silo AI, Europe’s largest private AI lab that was acquired by AMD last year for $665 million.
According to Sarlin, the project is one of the largest AI efforts backed by the European Commission. Generative AI in Europe has secured funding of €52 million, plus in-kind contributions of computing power that may be worth more than this.
“What’s unique about this initiative is that we’re bringing together many of Europe’s leading AI organizations in one focused effort, rather than having many small, fragmented projects,” Sarlin told TNW, adding that “this concentrated approach is what Europe needs to build open European AI models that eventually enable innovation at scale.”
LLM in Europe
Unlike other major LLM in European countries, which have been developed by US or Chinese companies, EuroLLM puts transparency, democracy, values, and European community values first.
“This is not about building a chatbot-the core idea here is to create the bedrock on which AI-powered innovation can happen in many sectors. This is not about building a general-purpose chatbot; this is about the digital and AI infrastructure that allows European companies to be innovative in AI,” Sarlin said.
“Whether it is a healthcare company that needs to develop assistants for medical doctors or a bank offering personalized financial services, they will need AI models adapted to the context in which they operate and also that they can control and own.” said Arthur Mensch, CEO of Mistral AI.
It also promises to conserve linguistic and cultural diversity so that the Europe AI development models can answer the specific needs of European AI projects business and public services.
This is, as the global competition of Europe AI development increases, a turning point for the continent to be competitive against leading players such as OpenAI, DeepSeek, and Google, while it retains its LLM in Europe independence on the digital landscape.
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