The AI gigafactory, the location of which Poznań is fighting, is a large-scale computing infrastructure that would support research, public and business projects from all over Poland, and perhaps even from other parts of Europe. The capital of Greater Poland can already boast well-prepared facilities for such a purpose: technological infrastructure, a strong and cooperative academic community and a highly developed IT sector.
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Poznań is already developing artificial intelligence
According to “Głos Wielkopolski”, the people involved in bringing the AI gigafactory to Poznań include: City Hall and its unit Poznań CityLab, Poznań University of Technology, University of Adam Mickiewicz, the Poznań Supercomputing and Networking Center and the company Beyond.pl., owned by Sebastian Kulczyk, which launched its AI project last year. Poznań universities already cooperate closely with each other in the field of artificial intelligence and cybersecurity. This cooperation is mentioned by the president as the city's greatest asset, although other cities that want to have an AI gigafactory can boast of similar cooperation, including: Kraków, Warsaw, Wrocław and Gdańsk.
There are currently two important computing infrastructure centers in Poznań. One of them is run by Beyond.pl., which is developing an AI factory with a FIN supercomputer that provides computing power to various institutions. The second one operates at the Poznań Supercomputing and Networking Center – Piast-AI. Other companies in Poznań are also working on artificial intelligence, including: the American company Snowflake or the Polish TomData.
Unlike these centers, however, the gigafactory will be a project on a much larger scale and will be of a commercial nature, not just research.
In addition to the above-mentioned cooperation between scientific communities, Poznań has other advantages. According to the Codzienny Poznań website, these include: “stable energy supplies, developed telecommunications infrastructure and location between major European markets.”
