HammerHAI: Inside Germany’s High-Performance “AI Factory”

10 February 2026

Europe is taking AI to the next level. With HammerHAI (Hybrid and Advanced Machine Learning Platform for Manufacturing, Engineering, and Research), one of the continent’s first “AI Factories,” Germany is creating a powerful hub for training and deploying AI models across science, industry, and society. Coordinated by the High-Performance Computing Center Stuttgart (HLRS) together with other leading German centers for high-performance computing and artificial intelligence, the initiative is centered around a new AI-optimized supercomputer to be installed in 2026.

Artificial intelligence holds enormous potential to develop new business models, improve efficiency, accelerate technology development, and provide new methodologies for scientific discovery. Many companies and scientific organizations across Europe today, however, face hurdles in their efforts to adopt AI.

Fueling the future: A symbolic lift-off for European AI innovation and industrial sovereignty.

Because of limited access to largescale AI computing infrastructure, a shortage of AI expertise, and data security concerns arising from a current reliance on offshore cloud AI service providers, European SMEs and startups in particular have been finding it challenging to keep pace with AI-driven innovation elsewhere in the world.

In a landmark attempt to jumpstart Europe’s AI capabilities, the EuroHPC Joint Undertaking (JU) recently established a European network of what it calls “AI Factories.” Conceived as technological ecosystems centered around powerful new AI-optimized supercomputing capabilities, 19 AI Factories are currently being implemented across Europe.

Among the first AI Factories to be announced was the German consortium HammerHAI. Coordinated by the Higherformance Computing Center Stuttgart (HLRS) in partnership with other leading German centers for highperformance computing and artificial intelligence, HammerHAI will make it easier for German and European developers and users of AI applications to access secure, scalable resources for AI model training and inference. With a focus on supporting AI capabilities in the fields of manufacturing, engineering, global challenges, and scientific research, HammerHAI is conceived as a one-stop shop for those in need of AI-capable computing hardware, solutions, consulting, or skills development.

The Beating Heart of HammerHAI: A Supercomputer Built for AI

At the heart of HammerHAI is a new, AI-optimized supercomputer that will soon be installed at HLRS. As of press time, a JU procurement process is underway and the new system, which will provide a high-performance platform for mid- to large-scale deep learning and artificial intelligence applications, is scheduled to arrive early in 2026. Because HLRS is a core facility at the University of Stuttgart and partner in the Gauss Centre for Supercomputing, the new supercomputer will also be accessible via the DFN’s X-Win network.

The HammerHAI consortium has already begun implementing services for AI users. “HammerHAI is open for business,” said Dr. Bastian Koller, Managing Director of HLRS and lead coordinator of HammerHAI. “There is already a lot of excitement and AI users and technology developers have started approaching us to begin discussing potential applications and planning proof-of-concept studies. These activities are laying a foundation that will enable us and our user community to scale up quickly once the new system becomes available.

HammerHAI Offers a Broad Service Portfolio for AI Developers and Users

Alongside the procurement of the new supercomputer, Hammer-HAI is developing an extensive service portfolio that offers AI developers and users access to trained models, datasets, tools, and professional education — resources that will accelerate the development and implementation of new AI products. This service portfolio will include compute resources hosted not only by the HammerHAI consortium (which also includes the Leibniz Rechenzentrum, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, the Gesellschaft für wissenschaftliche Datenverarbeitung Göttingen, and HPC/AI consultancy SICOS BW) but also across a growing network of partner organizations. Using a brokering approach, HammerHAI will promote its partners’ services and tools to a wider AI community while also facilitating users’ access to them.

Already, HammerHAI is working with ARENA2036, a state-of-the-art laboratory for automotive research at the University of Stuttgart. ARENA2036 operates a system for object recognition and movement detection in digital twins using point cloud AI that it will make available for training automation systems. In another partnership, HammerHAI is collaborating with AI consultancy and technology developer Seedbox.ai. The company used HLRS’s current Hunter supercomputer to train a large language model called KafkaLM in more than 20 European languages. In partnership with HammerHAI, eedbox has made the model publicly available, offering multilingual capabilities for organizations operating across borders in Europe.

Unlike large-scale commercial AI service providers, HammerHAI emphasizes personalized user support as a key component of its strategy. Conceived as a “concierge service,” a team of AI experts ensures that users get easy access to HammerHAI’s systems and resources, and can answer technical questions that arise during system usage. Additionally, HammerHAI provides consultancy services for users at all stages of the AI application development pipeline, from strategic planning up through model deployment and monitoring.

“HammerHAI is here to support artificial intelligence solution developers throughout the entire AI life cycle,” says Dennis Hoppe, leader of HLRS’s Department of Converged Computing and a project manager in HammerHAI. “Whether you are just beginning to explore strategic opportunities for AI, or need support scaling or deploying an existing application on a larger system, our mission is to provide expertise that can help you achieve your goals more quickly.”

Guided to success: Bridging the gap between bright ideas and practical AI implementation through dedicated support.

HammerHAI, together with the entire network of European AI Factories, is also an important step in securing Europe’s technological sovereignty. German researchers, startups, and SME’s can feel confident that their data remain local, and are managed in a way that adheres to European compliance requirements for data security and the ethical use of AI.

HammerHAI Partners with University of Edinburgh

The HammerHAI story also continues to develop. In October 2025, the EuroHPC Joint Undertaking announced the creation of 13 “AI Factory Antennas,” a new category of competence centers for artificial intelligence that will complement and extend the activities of AI Factories across Europe. HammerHAI will participate as a partner in the UK AI Factory Antenna (UKAIFA), led by the Edinburgh Parallel Computing Centre (EPCC) at the University of Edinburgh. The UKAIFA will establish a bridge between the United Kingdom and the European AI Factory network. Together, HammerHAI and EPCC will undertake a variety of efforts to accelerate the adoption of artificial intelligence in SMEs, startups, industry, and the public sector, demonstrating how artificial intelligence can promote innovation and economic growth across numerous sectors of society.

HammerHAI has received funding from the European High Performance Computing Joint Undertaking under grant agreement No. 101234027. The project is co-funded by the European Commission, the German Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space (BMFTR), the Baden-Württemberg Ministry of Science, Research and the Arts, the Bavarian State Ministry of Science and the Arts and the Lower Saxony Ministry of Science and Culture.