DigiFarm is a Norwegian company helping farmers, agricultural companies, and authorities to optimize resource management, reducing costs by 10% while increasing crop yield and efficiency. Also, DigiFarm has recently proven that the application of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and supercomputing is not exclusively for large tech companies.
DigiFarm has utilized the supercomputer LUMI. Operated by CSC, Finland’s national research and education network (NREN), LUMI is one of Europe’s most powerful supercomputers. LUMI offers free-of-charge access for startups, SMEs (small and medium-size enterprises), and academic researchers.
“LUMI represents a turning point for us and will undoubtedly greatly impact our ability to deliver innovative solutions for the agricultural sector. Access to LUMI allows us to accelerate development and significantly improve our model’s precision,” says Nils Helset, founder and CEO of DigiFarm.
He further estimates that LUMI’s resources have shortened the time-to-market of DigiFarm’s product development by 6 months.
DigiFarm is one of dozens of companies across Europe to have utilized LUMI. The new LUMI AI Factory – one of the recently announced European AI Factories – is established to facilitate AI adoption among SMEs and startups further. The LUMI AI Factory is operated by CSC with support from a consortium including Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Norway, and Poland.
Empowering businesses
Inaugurated in April 2025, the LUMI AI Factory focuses on strategically selected sectors: manufacturing, health and life sectors, and communication technologies and networks. In addition, the LUMI AI Factory will leverage advancements in simulation and AI to drive innovation in digital twins and AI for science across focus areas, including climate and weather, materials technology, and language.
“LUMI AI Factory, in collaboration with the European Union and our consortium partners, is taking Europe’s AI development to the next level together with the other European AI Factories. We provide world-class computing resources, novel datasets, and tailored competence development with a wide array of services catered for diverse users – empowering businesses and researchers across Europe and Finland like never before,” says CSC’s Managing Director, Kimmo Koski.
Datasets-as-a-Service
The services provided by the LUMI AI Factory include training and fine-tuning of AI models in a supercomputing environment, guidance on computational challenges, and access to cutting-edge tools, data, and software.
Unlocking data is a key driver of the LUMI AI Factory. The Datasets-as-a-Service spearheads access and enables use of high-value datasets such as the European Open Web Index produced by the OpenWebSearch.eu project, spatial data, and speech data.
The main hub for the LUMI AI Factory will be located at the Aalto University in Espoo, Finland. To extend its reach and collaboration, a network of satellite hubs will be established in partner countries. Complementing these physical spaces, the LUMI AI Factory Service Center will offer a comprehensive virtual workspace, enabling seamless cooperation across borders.
The text is inspired by the article “LUMI AI Factory empowering European startups and SMEs to unlock AI’s full potential” at the CSC website.
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