By Elvira Pollina
MILAN (Reuters) -United Arab Emirates tech firm G42 agreed on Friday to partner with Italian artificial intelligence startup iGenius to develop a major AI supercomputer in Italy, the companies said in a joint statement.
The deal is part of a broader framework announced at a bilateral summit in February, where the United Arab Emirates pledged to invest $40 billion in Italy, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said at that time.
The AI data center project, called Colosseum, will be developed with $1 billion over five years using Nvidia technology in southern Italy.
G42 will be the main financier of the initial phase, to create what the companies called the “largest AI computer deployment” in Europe.
The agreement will create an AI hub in Italy, Industry Minister Adolfo Urso said at the Investopia conference in Milan, noting “strong chances” that it would be located in the southeastern Apulia region.
Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund Mubadala, the UAE’s ruling family and U.S. private equity firm Silver Lake, hold stakes in G42.
(Reporting by Elvira Pollina, Writing by Gianluca Semeraro, Editing by Giulia Segreti, Alvise Armellini, Mark Potter and Richard Chang)
