France expands the Bour factory, accelerating AI computing power construction in Europe

⑴ Executives from Bull, the manufacturer of Europe's fastest supercomputers, stated that as Europe ramps up its efforts to build AI computing power, Bull on Thursday reopened its expanded factory, doubling its production capacity.⑵ The EU has pledged to invest 700 million euros in building a supercomputer network between 2021 and 2027.⑶ Bull's factory in Angers, France, is the only one in Europe dedicated solely to manufacturing such supercomputers, and the recent expansion aims to support this objective.⑷ Bull CEO Emmanuel Le Roux said that the number of orders received by the company this year has reached a record high.⑸ He noted that Bull won 15 out of the 18 tenders issued by the EU agency EuroHPC.⑹ Bull executives stated that the latest expansion of the Angers factory cost around 80 million euros, and the output has now doubled from six cabinets per month to 12.⑺ Overall, Europe is accelerating the deployment of AI computing infrastructure, with manufacturing and tender demand rising in tandem. It will be important to monitor the pace of EU funding and the release of domestic production capacity going forward.