What is OpenEuroLLM ?

Let's talk about countries' and even continents' position in AI-LLM World.

Today, I want to talk about Europe's position in LLM Development. I will deep dive into OpenEuroLLM Initiative supported by European Union.

In order to strengthen Europe's position in artificial intelligence (AI), a consortium of 20 leading research institutions, companies, and EuroHPC centers has launched the OpenEuroLLM project. This initiative aims to develop a series of high-performance, multilingual, open-source large language models (LLMs) tailored for commercial, industrial, and public sector applications. Coordinated by Jan Hajič of Charles University in Czechia and co-led by Peter Sarlin of AMD Silo AI in Finland, the project embodies an unprecedented collaboration to advance European AI capabilities.

Objectives and Vision

OpenEuroLLM seeks to democratize access to high-quality AI technologies by creating transparent and compliant open-source models. These models are designed to strengthen the competitiveness of European companies in the global market and enhance the capacity of public organizations to deliver impactful services. The project aligns with Europe's commitment to digital sovereignty and aims to lower barriers for AI product development through transparency, openness, and community involvement.

Commitment to European Values

Developed within Europe's robust regulatory framework, OpenEuroLLM ensures alignment with European values while maintaining technological excellence. By collaborating with open-source and open science communities such as LAION, open-sci, and OpenML, the project guarantees that its models, software, data, and evaluation methods are fully open. This openness allows for fine-tuning and instruction-tuning to meet specific industry and public sector needs. The multilingual models also preserve linguistic and cultural diversity, enabling European companies to develop high-quality products and services in the AI era.

Strategic Importance and Funding

The European Commission has recognized the strategic importance of OpenEuroLLM by awarding it the Strategic Technologies for Europe Platform (STEP) Seal, marking it as the first Digital Europe Programme-funded project to receive this distinction. The project has a total budget of €37.4 million, with €20.6 million provided by the Digital Europe Programme. This funding underscores the EU's commitment to enhancing European industrial competitiveness through critical technologies like AI.

Consortium Partners

The OpenEuroLLM consortium comprises a diverse group of partners:

• Universities and Research Organizations:

  • Charles University, Institute of Formal and Applied Linguistics, Czechia (coordinator)
  • Alliance for Language Technologies EDIC (ALT-EDIC), France
  • Eindhoven University of Technology, Netherlands
  • ELLIS Institute Tübingen, Germany
  • Fraunhofer IAIS, Germany
  • Research Center Juelich, Germany
  • Lindholmen Science Park (AI Sweden), Sweden
  • University of Helsinki, Finland
  • University of Oslo, Norway
  • University of Turku, Finland
  • University of Tübingen (Tübingen AI Center), Germany

• Companies:

  • Silo GenAI (AMD Silo AI), Finland (co-lead)
  • Aleph Alpha Research, Germany
  • ellamind, Germany
  • LightOn, France
  • Prompsit Language Engineering, Spain

• EuroHPC Centers:

  • Barcelona Supercomputing Center, Spain
  • Cineca Interuniversity Consortium, Italy
  • CSC - IT Center for Science, Finland
  • SURF, Netherlands

This diverse partnership leverages extensive experience and resources, including large repositories of high-quality data and previously developed pilot LLMs. The consortium began its work on February 1, 2025, with funding from the European Commission under the Digital Europe Programme.

OpenEuroLLM: Last Word

OpenEuroLLM represents a significant step forward in Europe's AI landscape, fostering collaboration across sectors to develop open-source language models that are transparent, compliant, and diverse. By aligning with European values and regulatory frameworks, the project aims to empower companies and public organizations to harness AI's potential while preserving cultural and linguistic diversity.