The European High Performance Computing Joint Undertaking (EuroHPC JU) has signed a hosting agreement with Digital Government Development and Project Management Company (DKF) in Hungary for the deployment of the Levente supercomputer.

Set to be located in Budapest, Hungary, the mid-range supercomputer will be operated by DFK, offering at least 23 petaflops of compute power.

Offering “enhanced AI capabilities,” the system forms part of the EU’s ‘AI factories’ initiative, which seeks to develop a European AI ecosystem centered around EuroHPC supercomputing facilities. Once deployed, the €42 million ($49m) system will serve both the initiative and Hungary’s academic, research, and SME communities.

Levente was partly funded by the EuroHPC JU and the Hungarian government, with DFK set to manage the supercomputer’s procurement process, in collaboration with EuroHPC JU.

Launched in 2018 and headquartered in Luxembourg, EuroHPC JU is a joint initiative between the EU, 35 European countries, and private partners to develop a supercomputing ecosystem in Europe. It has helped fund the deployment of nine supercomputers to date and multiple quantum computers.

Through the EuroHPC Joint Undertaking (EuroHPC JU), the Commission previously announced plans for seven “AI factories” in December and will soon announce the next five, in a €10bn ($10.5bn) investment program.