Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF)SPRIND，Federal Employment Agencyür Sprunginnovationen) on2026Year4Month28officially launchedNext
Frontier AIChallenge: Soliciting disruptive potential across EuropeAIR&D team. The total fund pool for this plan reaches1.25hundred million euros, aimed at implementing a phased competition mechanism to2028cultivate at least by fall3can beOpenAI、AnthropicLeading European homegrown alternatives for competitionAILaboratory

I. Europe is trappedAIsovereignty anxiety", cultivate localAIUrgent lab

Today, the most competitive in the worldAILarge models are almost entirely from the United States and China. According to industry statistics,2025Global Year50The cutting-edge models are from the United States.30One is from China, while Europe remains almost entirely empty in this field.SPRINDIt is pointed out that without developing its own models, Europe will deepen strategic dependence on this key future technology."Europe boasts world-classAITalent, but almost no local cutting-edge laboratoriesSPRINDChallenge LeaderJano Costardindicates,Next Frontier AIOur goal is not to join the current large language model race, but to leap to the next technological frontier."

II. The Challenge was successfully held,10The team has been shortlisted.

This challenge lasts24months, using a milestone-driven elimination system with funding disbursed in three stages. Each team can receive up to approximately2650Non-dilutive funding in the amount of €[amount] million. All funds are equity-free (equity-free), the team can simultaneously attract private investment.

 2026Year7Month17Day,SPRINDAnnounced the first batch of selected10a team including spin-offs from top European universities such as Oxford, ETH Zurich, University of St. Gallen, and University of Tübingen. Some founders have previously worked atGoogle DeepMind、OpenAIandHugging FaceWork inAIR&D work."If we simply copy what leading labs did five years ago, we'll be five years behind.Jano
Costardcommented that"This10Every team in the branch is...'What's the next paradigm?'Provided a serious answer."

SPRINDClearly state1.25The euro amount is just"A starting point, not an endpoint". To2028in the fall of, ultimately emerged as the winner3The team will be positioned to each raise up to10A multi-billion-euro funding round to build a truly internationally competitiveAILaboratory"likeAMI
Labs、Recursive SuperintelligenceandIneffable IntelligenceSuch a company has already broken the notion that Europe cannot...AIThe myth of a domain raising $1 billion in funding. But three bets aren't enough to win the race. Europe needs thirty such companies.SPRINDCo-host of the Challenge,AIQuantum Investment AdvisorJohannes OtterbachThe doctor stated.

SPRINDEmphasize that this initiative explicitly excludes incremental optimization of existing architectures. Instead, it encourages exploration of entirely new model categories, disruptive agent systems, more efficient training paradigms, innovative multimodal capabilities, and systematic multi-agent approaches. In addition to funding, selected teams will also receive a24month's computing infrastructure,MLOpsSupport and corporate incubation coaching.