The Ericsson consortium intends to build an AI infrastructure that will be operated by a jointly owned company
In sum – what you need to know:
National AI infrastructure – Ericsson, AstraZeneca, SAAB, SEB and Wallenberg Investments have formed a Swedish consortium to build the country’s largest enterprise AI supercomputer, powered by Nvidia’s DGX SuperPODs with Grace Blackwell GB300 systems.
Sovereign compute – The AI Factory will be operated by a jointly owned entity, offering secure and sovereign access to AI computing resources for Swedish industry, with Nvidia also establishing its first AI Technology Center in the country.
Sector-specific AI – Consortium members will apply the infrastructure to a range of applications: Ericsson in network intelligence, AstraZeneca in drug discovery, SAAB in defense systems and SEB in digital financial services.
Ericsson’s AI expertise will play a central role in a newly launched Sweden-based AI Factory, where a consortium of Swedish companies will collaborate using Nvidia’s computing technologies to support national digitalization efforts.
The consortium — comprising Ericsson, AstraZeneca, SAAB, SEB and Wallenberg Investments — plans to build an AI infrastructure that will be operated by a jointly owned company. This system will provide secure and sovereign computing access for its industry members.
Ericsson noted that the initiative is designed to promote AI innovation across Sweden by facilitating knowledge exchange and strengthening AI capabilities across various sectors.
The first phase of the project will include the deployment of two Nvidia DGX SuperPODs, powered by Nvidia’s latest Grace Blackwell GB300 systems. Once operational, this setup will represent the largest enterprise AI supercomputer in Sweden, according to the vendor.
The new AI infrastructure will support compute-intensive AI tasks, including the training of specialized AI models and large-scale inference operations such as reasoning AI.
To further support the goals of the Swedish consortium, Nvidia also plans to open its first AI technology center in Sweden, which will promote AI research and collaboration with the participating companies.
Ericsson chief technology officer Erik Ekudden said: “AI has a key role to play in the network evolution with high-performance programmable and autonomous networks. AI and 5G are also critical in the future competitiveness of Sweden, and other countries, by driving innovation, enabling start-ups and delivering new use cases and capabilities. As a company that already invests heavily in AI research and development, Ericsson is looking forward to working with other leading Swedish companies and Nvidia to ensure Sweden is at the forefront of AI development and benefits.”
Jensen Huang, Nvidia’s CEO, added: “As electricity powered the industrial age and the Internet fueled the digital age, AI is the engine of the next industrial revolution. Through the visionary initiative of Wallenberg Investments and Sweden’s industry leaders, the country is building its first AI infrastructure — laying the foundation for breakthroughs across science, industry, and society, and securing Sweden’s place at the forefront of the AI era.”
Meanwhile, Marcus Wallenberg, chair of Wallenberg Investments, noted that investing in cutting-edge AI infrastructure is a crucial step toward accelerating the development and adoption of AI across Swedish industry. “We believe this initiative will generate valuable spillover effects — by enabling upskilling, fostering new collaborations and strengthening the broader national AI ecosystem,” he said.
Under the initiative, Ericsson will apply its data science and AI expertise to develop advanced models aimed at improving network performance, operational efficiency and user experience. This work will also enable new applications and business models serving billions of end-users worldwide.
Meanwhile, AstraZeneca plans to use the platform to drive forward AI-powered drug discovery and development. Its focus includes training foundation models, performing multi-modal inference and leveraging advanced data processing techniques.
SAAB will incorporate AI into its development of advanced defense technologies. The company will use the platform to speed up the integration of AI into its next-generation products and systems.
Also, SEB will make AI a key component of its strategy to increase productivity, create new customer solutions and secure its future operations.
