Portugal Commits EUR 19.3 Million to Supercomputing and AI Infrastructure

Portugal's Council of Ministers has approved a resolution committing EUR 19.3 million to two strategic supercomputing and artificial intelligence infrastructure projects, reinforcing the country's role in Europe's push for technological sovereignty. The decision, published in the Diário da República, channels funding through the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) over the period 2026 to 2029.

Deucalion: Upgrading Portugal's Supercomputer

Of the total investment, EUR 3.7 million is earmarked for the Deucalion supercomputer, housed at the International Iberian Nanotechnology Laboratory (INL) in Guimarães. Inaugurated in 2023, Deucalion is Portugal's most powerful high-performance computing (HPC) system and is part of the EuroHPC Joint Undertaking — the EU's programme to build a network of world-class supercomputers across Europe.

The new funding will cover operational costs, expand Deucalion's computational capacity, and support its integration into European research networks. The machine currently serves Portuguese and European researchers in fields ranging from climate modelling and drug discovery to materials science and artificial intelligence.

MareNostrum 5: Portugal's Stake in Europe's AI Factory

The larger share of the investment — EUR 15.6 million — will go toward the MareNostrum 5 AI Factory in Barcelona. MareNostrum 5, operated by the Barcelona Supercomputing Center, is one of Europe's flagship exascale-class systems and is being upgraded into a specialised AI platform capable of training large foundation models.

Portugal's contribution secures continued access for Portuguese startups, small and medium enterprises, and the scientific community to cutting-edge computing resources that would be prohibitively expensive to build domestically. The AI Factory model is part of the European Commission's strategy to ensure the EU can develop and train its own AI systems rather than relying entirely on US and Chinese infrastructure.

Part of a Broader European Strategy

The investment aligns with the EU's European Chips Act and Digital Decade targets, which aim to have the bloc operating at least one exascale supercomputer by 2025 — a target that has been met — and to double the number of AI-capable HPC systems by 2030.

Portugal's Science and Technology Minister described the funding as "an investment in Portugal's capacity to compete in the knowledge economy" and noted that domestic demand for HPC resources has grown more than 300 per cent since Deucalion came online.

What It Means for Portuguese Businesses

For Portugal's growing technology sector, the practical benefit is access to computational power that enables work in generative AI, large-scale data analytics, and simulation-heavy engineering that smaller companies could not otherwise afford. The FCT will manage an access programme that prioritises startups and SMEs, with dedicated support for projects in health technology, clean energy, and precision agriculture.

The resolution also commits the government to publishing a national AI infrastructure roadmap by the end of 2026, setting out how Portugal intends to position itself within Europe's emerging network of AI factories and sovereign computing hubs.