Thanks to an agreement, the possible new facility with an AI supercomputer will be able to use Nvidia’s hardware and technical expertise.
Economy Minister Dirk Beljaarts announced this during his visit to the United States. The minister is visiting the tech fair CES there, as well as cities and companies with which the Netherlands has strong economic ties. Beljaarts spoke with Nvidia, a GPU supplier that plays a crucial role in realizing a possible AI facility.
The deal to secure the supply of Nvidia’s chips will allow the Netherlands to deploy an AI supercomputer to develop and apply AI in the future. While it is uncertain whether the AI facility will come to fruition, Beljaarts now sees the chances of realising a Dutch location increasing significantly. Several countries have similar ambitions, which puts Nvidia in a position of luxury: the company can choose from a large number of governments and companies willing to cooperate to supply their equipment.
Ambitions
“Before a shovel can go into the ground, we need to ensure the required knowledge and hardware is available. Nvidia has the knowledge and high-tech equipment needed to build an AI facility. Today an important step has been taken in this regard,” Beljaarts explained to the Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf.
The Dutch government has broader ambitions to make the country a more prominent player in AI. Early last year, 204.5 million euros were already set aside for investments in AI, also using subsidies from the European Union.
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