Europe has unveiled OpenEuroLLM, a collaborative project designed to develop open-source large language models encompassing all official and prospective EU languages. This initiative seeks to bolster the continent’s digital sovereignty and competitiveness in artificial intelligence.
The consortium comprises over 20 European research institutions, technology firms, and high-performance computing centers. Notable participants include Germany’s Aleph Alpha, Finland’s CSC, and France’s Lights On. The project is coordinated by Jan Hajič from Charles University in Czechia and co-led by Peter Sarlin, co-founder of Silo AI.
The European Commission has allocated €37.4 million to OpenEuroLLM, with €20.6 million sourced from the Digital Europe Programme. This funding underscores the EU’s commitment to fostering technological self-sufficiency and innovation within its digital landscape.
OpenEuroLLM is structured to reflect European principles of transparency, democratic oversight, and community participation. The models, software, and data will be fully open, allowing for customization in various industries and public services. The initiative also emphasizes preserving Europe’s linguistic and cultural diversity.
The project aligns with Europe’s regulatory framework, ensuring that AI development remains accessible and adaptable to diverse needs. By collaborating with organizations such as LAION, OpenML, and open-sci, OpenEuroLLM plans to release models that support linguistic diversity and can be fine-tuned for specific industry and government use cases.
However, some experts have raised concerns about the project’s feasibility. Alek Tarkowski, co-founder of Open Future Foundation, pointed out that the €37.4 million budget raises questions about whether a consortium of 20 institutions can effectively build competitive foundation models.
Similarly, Daniel Khachab, co-founder and CEO of Choco, criticized the initiative, stating that the fragmented regulatory structure in Europe, riddled with inconsistent implementation, is hampering innovation and holding back developers.
Despite these challenges, the OpenEuroLLM initiative represents a significant step toward Europe’s goal of establishing a robust, independent AI ecosystem. By prioritizing linguistic inclusion and compliance with the AI Act, the project aims to reduce reliance on foreign AI models while fostering innovation within Europe’s digital landscape.
The European Commission has launched the OpenEuroLLM Project, a new initiative aimed at developing open-source, multilingual AI models. The project, which began on February 1, is supported by a consortium of 20 European research institutions, companies, and EuroHPC centres. Coordinated by Jan Hajič from Charles University and co-led by Peter Sarlin of AMD Silo AI, the project is designed to produce large language models that are proficient in all EU languages and comply with the bloc’s regulatory framework.
The OpenEuroLLM Project has been awarded the Strategic Technologies for Europe Platform Seal, a recognition granted to high-quality initiatives under the Digital Europe Programme. This endorsement highlights the project’s importance as a critical technology for Europe. The LLMs developed will be open-sourced, allowing their use for commercial, industrial, and public sector purposes. The initiative aims to democratize access to high-quality AI technologies, helping European companies remain competitive globally and empowering public organizations to deliver impactful services.
While the timeline for model release and specific focus areas have not yet been detailed, the European Commission has already committed funding and anticipates attracting further investors in the coming weeks.
In the global competition for powerful artificial intelligence systems, Europe is entering another project into the race with OpenEuroLLM. The project is backed by a consortium of 20 European research institutions, companies, and high-performance computing centers. The aim is to build a family of powerful, multilingual large language models for commercial, industrial, and public services on an open-source basis.
The OpenEuroLLM project is aligned with the imperative to improve Europe’s competitiveness and digital sovereignty. The project is a prime example of the type of technology infrastructure needed to lower thresholds for European AI product development and refinement, demonstrating the strength of transparency, openness, and community involvement, values largely recognized across the European tech ecosystem. The models will be developed within Europe’s robust regulatory framework, ensuring alignment with European values while maintaining technological excellence.
Cooperating with open-source and open science communities like LAION, open-sci, and OpenML, and additional experts in the field assembled in the project’s Open Strategic Partnership Board, OpenEuroLLM will ensure that the models, software, data, and evaluation will be fully open and can be fine-tuned and instruction-tuned for specific industry and public sector needs.
As China’s DeepSeek threatens to dismantle Silicon Valley’s AI monopoly, a European alliance has emerged with an alternative to tech’s global order. They call their project OpenEuroLLM. Like DeepSeek, they aim to develop next-generation open-source language models — but their agenda is very different. Their mission: forging European AI that will foster digital leaders and impactful public services across the continent.
To support these objectives, OpenEuroLLM is building a family of high-performing, multilingual large language foundation models. The models will be available for commercial, industrial, and public services.
In the global competition for powerful artificial intelligence systems, Europe is entering another project into the race with OpenEuroLLM. The project is backed by a consortium of 20 European research institutions, companies, and high-performance computing centers. The aim is to build a family of powerful, multilingual large language models for commercial, industrial, and public services on an open-source basis.
The OpenEuroLLM initiative represents a major step toward Europe’s goal of establishing a robust, independent AI ecosystem. By prioritizing linguistic inclusion and compliance with the AI Act, the project aims to reduce reliance on foreign AI models while fostering innovation within Europe’s digital landscape.
The European Commission has launched the OpenEuroLLM Project, a new initiative aimed at developing open-source, multilingual AI models. The project, which began on February 1, is supported by a consortium of 20 European research institutions, companies, and EuroHPC centres. Coordinated by Jan Hajič from Charles University and co-led by Peter Sarlin of AMD Silo AI, the project is designed to produce large language models that are proficient in all EU languages and comply with the bloc’s regulatory framework.
The OpenEuroLLM Project has been awarded the Strategic Technologies for Europe Platform Seal, a recognition granted to high-quality initiatives under the Digital Europe Programme. This endorsement highlights the project’s importance as a critical technology for Europe. The LLMs developed will be open-sourced, allowing their use for commercial, industrial, and public sector purposes. The initiative aims to democratize access to high-quality AI technologies, helping European companies remain competitive globally and empowering public organizations to deliver impactful services.
While the timeline for model release and specific focus areas have not yet been detailed, the European Commission has already committed funding and anticipates attracting further investors in the coming weeks.
