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Nvidia ( NVDA ) to expand tech centres in seven European countries

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Plans to open 20 AI factories in Europe

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Partners with Mistral to create AI computing platform

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AI in Europe to increase by factor of 10 in two years: CEO

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Quantum computing technology is at an inflection point:

CEO

(Rewrites with AI industrial cloud plan, Mistral deal, more CEO

comments)

PARIS, June 11 (Reuters) - Nvidia ( NVDA ) will build

its first artificial intelligence cloud platform for industrial

applications in Germany, CEO Jensen Huang said on Wednesday at

the VivaTech conference in Paris.

The technology, which will combine AI with robotics, will

help carmakers such as BMW and Mercedes-Benz with processes from

simulating product design to managing logistics.

In a series of Europe-focused announcements, Huang outlined

plans to expand technology centres in seven countries, open up

Nvidia's ( NVDA ) compute marketplace for European companies, help AI

model makers in several languages become more advanced, and aid

in drug discovery by firms such as Novo Nordisk.

"In just two years, we will increase the amount of AI

computing capacity in Europe by a factor of 10," said Huang, in

a nearly two-hour-long presentation in front of a packed

audience.

"Europe has now awakened to the importance of AI factories

and the importance of the AI infrastructure," he said, laying

out plans for 20 AI factories - large-scale infrastructure

designed for developing, training, and deploying AI models - in

Europe.

While Europe has lagged the U.S. and China in developing AI

technologies, the European Commission said in March it planned

to invest $20 billion to construct four AI factories.

Nvidia ( NVDA ) is also partnering with European AI champion Mistral

to create AI computing that runs on 18,000 of the latest Nvidia ( NVDA )

chips for European businesses.

"Sovereign AI is an imperative - no company, industry, or

nation can outsource its intelligence", Huang said.

Huang has been trotting the globe to highlight the

importance of businesses adopting AI and the dangers of falling

behind.

On Monday, he said in London that Britain lacked the

computing infrastructure to deliver the full potential of its AI

research base.

Beyond AI, Huang reiterated his view quantum computing

technology is at an inflection point.

Quantum calculations could crack problems that currently

would demand years of processing from Nvidia's ( NVDA ) most advanced AI

systems.

Quantum computing will solve "some interesting problems" in

the coming years, Huang added.

The CEO made similar comments in March at Nvidia's ( NVDA ) annual

software developer conference when he spoke about the potential

of quantum computing, walking back comments he made in January

when he said useful quantum computers were 20 years away.