‘By supporting the emergence of Bull, we’re selecting strategic independence,’ mentioned France’s minister delegate for synthetic intelligence and digital affairs.
France has accomplished its acquisition of 100pc of the capital of supercomputer maker Bull from Atos Group, in a deal that marks a “main step ahead for French and European technological sovereignty”.
The acquisition, the completion of which was introduced yesterday (31 March), is anticipated to spice up France and Europe’s tech sovereignty significantly within the areas of excessive‑efficiency computing, AI and quantum applied sciences, in keeping with the French state and Bull. The French state is now the only shareholder of Bull.
“The revival of Bull as an unbiased firm supported by the French state marks a decisive step in our historical past,” mentioned Emmanuel Le Roux, CEO of Bull. “With an extended‑time period strategic shareholder, we’re strengthening our place as a trusted industrial accomplice throughout all the worth chain of excessive‑efficiency computing, quantum computing and synthetic intelligence.”
The deal to amass Bull from Atos Group was first agreed in July of final yr, when France agreed to pay an enterprise worth of as much as €404m for the corporate.
Bull, which is headquartered in Bezons, France, designs and manufactures supercomputers and excessive‑efficiency servers, in addition to enterprise servers, software program options, AI use instances and improvements in quantum computing.
“The supercomputers produced there meet probably the most demanding wants of nationwide defence, business and basic analysis, and are additionally important for coaching and deploying synthetic intelligence fashions,” learn yesterday’s announcement. “They’re recognised for his or her efficiency and power effectivity – two decisive standards for coaching giant AI fashions.”
The computing firm has been in operation for practically a century, having been based in 1931. The corporate was acquired by Atos Group in 2014, when it grew to become the organisation’s superior computing enterprise.
Europe’s sovereignty push
The completion of France’s buy of Bull comes amid a wider push for tech sovereignty in Europe in latest occasions – significantly within the wake of latest transatlantic tensions with the present US administration.
France, together with Germany, have been outstanding figureheads within the push for European digital sovereignty, with each nations taking centre stage finally November’s Summit on European Digital Sovereignty to suggest a lot of initiatives – together with the launch of a joint taskforce on European digital sovereignty led by the 2 nations.
Sovereignty efforts have seen milestones achieved in Europe’s supercomputing area specifically.
Final September, Jupiter, the first laptop system in Europe to realize exascale threshold – one which performs a couple of quintillion operations per second – was inaugurated on the Jülich Supercomputing Centre in Germany.
Jupiter joined present supercomputers within the EuroHPC community – specifically, MareNostrum in Spain, Leonardo in Italy, Lumi in Finland, Discoverer in Bulgaria, MeluXina in Luxembourg, Vega in Slovenia, Karolina in Czechia and Deucalion in Portugal – collectively conducting billions of calculations per second.
A month later, the European Excessive Efficiency Computing Joint Endeavor (EuroHPC JU) signed a procurement contract with Eviden for the supply of Alice Recoque, a brand new European exascale supercomputer (named after the late pioneering French laptop scientist) to be positioned in France.
“The state’s entry into Bull’s share capital marks a decisive step for our digital sovereignty,” mentioned Anne Le Hénanff, France’s minister delegate for synthetic intelligence and digital affairs. “At a time when synthetic intelligence and quantum applied sciences are profoundly reshaping technological balances, France is equipping itself with a number one industrial participant in excessive‑efficiency computing.
“By supporting the emergence of Bull, we’re selecting strategic independence. It’s a sturdy sign: that of a rustic that invests, that protects its experience, and that’s decided to stay sovereign within the applied sciences that can form the world of tomorrow.”
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