The Portuguese startup Unbabel was one of the four winners of the “Large AI Grand Challenge”, a competition promoted by EuroHPC-JU and supported by the European Commission, which attracted 94 applications from across Europe. This challenge was created to recognize and reward startups and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that develop ambitious strategies and commit to creating large-scale AI models capable of providing a significant competitive advantage for Europe.

Founded in 2013 and based in Lisbon, Unbabel specializes in language translation services (LangOps). Using artificial intelligence combined with the expertise of a team of specialists, Unbabel offers translations for the 24 official languages of the European Union, ensuring high quality and accuracy.

The challenge, launched on November 23, 2023, awarded each of the four winning startups 250,000 euros and 2 million GPU hours to be used over 12 months on one of the largest European supercomputers, LUMI or LEONARDO. These resources will allow the winning companies to significantly accelerate the development of their AI solutions, solidifying Europe as a global leader in the field.

[Image credits: European Comission]