AI Factory Austria AI:AT is supporting Another Earth, another innovative Austrian deep tech start-up, in accessing European high-performance computing (HPC) systems. The company develops AI-supported synthetic Earth observation models and is now training them on EuroHPC systems. AI Factory Austria is thus demonstrating once again that companies can already access Europe's most powerful computing infrastructures in a structured, efficient, and supported manner.
Austria in the European space, AI, and data ecosystem
AI Factory Austria AI:AT is part of the European AI Factories initiative under the EuroHPC Joint Undertaking and the Horizon Europe program. The goal is to connect AI and HPC capacities across Europe and build sovereign key technologies for strategic future fields, including space, Earth observation, and the data economy.
“For AI-supported space applications, Earth observation, and sustainable resource use, access to European supercomputers opens up completely new potential – from climate analysis and monitoring to resilient infrastructure. AI Factory Austria creates a clear interface for this and strengthens Austria's competitiveness. It enables sophisticated applications and builds trust in the technologies of tomorrow,” explains Innovation and Space Minister Peter Hanke.
Another Earth: AI-supported synthetic Earth observation
Another Earth develops multimodal diffusion models that generate synthetic Earth observation data: optical satellite images, land use data, elevation models, and other geoinformation. These generated datasets can supplement existing Earth observation data – for climate research, energy supply, crisis and disaster management, urban planning, or precision agriculture.
The training models are based on 1.4 million image sections and require several thousand GPU hours, depending on the setup. State-of-the-art GPU resources (A100/H100) are available for this purpose via EuroHPC systems. Felix Geremus, founder of Another Earth, explains: “Our models are extremely computationally intensive. Thanks to AI Factory Austria, we were able to access EuroHPC infrastructure early on and conduct our experiments on powerful GPU hardware. This access has significantly accelerated our development process and greatly expanded our range of innovation.”
Karl Kugler, co-lead of AI Factory Austria AI:AT: “Another Earth shows how our support model works in practice. As a one-stop shop, we combine consulting, technical expertise, access to computing capacity, and assistance with the secure application of AI. The structured process ensures that companies can experiment, develop, and validate more quickly—all the way to scalable business models.”
Markus Stöhr, Co-Lead of AI Factory Austria AI:AT and Project Manager at Advanced Computing Austria (ACA), emphasizes: “We can see that access is working. The processes are established, the support is effective, and the infrastructure is usable. Another Earth is a good example of how we are bringing Austrian AI innovations to European supercomputers and enabling real added value.”
“Targeted support creates innovation momentum. We are already in contact with other companies that have similar needs – and are helping them to efficiently implement their projects within AI Factory Austria and the European AI Factories network,” says Thomas Mayerhofer, Head of Innovation Center at AI Factory Austria AI:AT.
About AI Factory Austria AI:AT
AI Factory Austria AI:AT is Austria's national platform for applied artificial intelligence and high-performance computing. It is implemented by the AIT Austrian Institute of Technology in collaboration with Advanced Computing Austria (ACA) and offers companies, start-ups, and research institutions central access to European computing resources, consulting, training, and innovation services related to AI, HPC, and trustworthy technology development.
The AI Factory Austria consortium also includes:
TU Wien, University of Vienna, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna (BOKU), University of Innsbruck, Graz University of Technology (TU Graz), Johannes Kepler University Linz (JKU), Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA), Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW), INiTS – Vienna's High-Tech Incubator, and EODC – Earth Observation Data Centre for Water Resources Monitoring GmbH.
Further information: www.ai-at.eu
About Another Earth
Another Earth develops multimodal AI models for generating synthetic Earth observation data that support data-driven decisions in climate research, energy and land use planning, crisis management, and agriculture.
For more information, visit: https://anotherearth.ai
Funding Acknowledgement
AI Factory Austria (AI:AT) is co-financed by the European High-Performance Computing Joint Undertaking (JU) under grant agreement No. 101253078. The Joint Undertaking is supported by the Horizon Europe program of the European Union and Austria (BMIMI / FFG).