ESA and OVHcloud renew partnership to support space start-ups in AI
Press Release by OVHcloud Wed 15 Jan 2025
Global cloud player and European Cloud leader, OVHcloud, and the European Space Agency (ESA) have announced an important new chapter in their long-standing collaboration. This includes a renewed commitment to support innovative space start-ups in artificial intelligence (AI), with an increasingly prominent focus on sustainability.
The renewal of the partnership is part of the ESA Partnership Initiative for Commercialisation (EPIC) goals to improve entrepreneurship and enhance business opportunities for European start-ups, involving ESA’s Business Incubation Centers (BIC), Technology Brokers and Phi-LabNET, as well as ESA’s original Φ-lab and InCubed and of the synergies with OVHcloud Startup Program, which has been instrumental in supporting the transition of start-ups and scale-ups to a reliable cloud for a decade now.
The constant collaboration between ESA and OVHcloud is focused on innovation, with an approach that allows start-ups to benefit from best-of-breed technologies with seamless and simple access to technology. For this reason, one of the partnership’s objectives is to promote the use of OVHcloud AI Solutions, including OVHcloud AI Endpoints within the ESA Commercialisation Networks.
Designed with simplicity in mind, OVHcloud AI Endpoints enable developers to easily enhance their applications with off-the-shelf AI APIs. The serverless platform, which requires no AI expertise or dedicated infrastructure, hosts a range of cutting-edge AI models, like LLMs, language processing, translation, voice recognition, image recognition, and more.
Space start-ups and scale-ups that benefit from the ESA-OVHcloud collaboration will also be able to apply to the OVHcloud Fast Forward AI Accelerator, which will provide additional technical and go-to-market support for selected AI start-ups and scale-ups. This support includes 1-on-1 time with OVHcloud’s AI engineers, extra cloud credits, and engagement with venture capitalists and corporate partners. The first cohort of the AI Accelerator will run from January to April 2025.
Sustainability is another shared value where both ESA and OVHcloud have established strong traditions. Defined as the pursuit of a mindset coupled with clear goals and specific targets aimed at driving meaningful global change, sustainability is a core focus for both organisations. OVHcloud’s selection as a partner is a natural fit due to its commitment to green practices and sustainable operations. Similarly, ESA is looking to integrate sustainability criteria into its selection process for supporting start-ups, promoting a sustainability-oriented mindset and enhancing collective awareness of these crucial issues.
On its end, OVHcloud stands out in the technological landscape for its integrated industrial model, which enables a sustainable cloud by design. With technologies such as water cooling enabling to set high standards with best-in-class PUE of 1.26 and WUE of 0.37 for the Group global data centres, all the while lowering our overall carbon impact. The Carbon Calculator allows users to obtain monthly reports on the carbon emissions linked to their cloud usage as well.
This collaboration already extends to cutting-edge technologies, like quantum computing, where space startups can now access quantum computer emulators on OVHcloud. In the future, quantum computing will accelerate space-use cases related to optimisations or simulations, and this collaboration will help entrepreneurs access these cutting-edge technologies.
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