Frequently asked questions

The AI Accelerator offers the world’s most innovative start ups access to Northern Data Group’s GenAI platform, empowering them to amplify Innovation Bravery. The AI Accelerator grants select startups access to Northern Data Group’s Generative AI IaaS offering, as well as the Group’s bespoke support and expertise.

We will provide selected startups with access to NVIDIA HGX H100 GPUs with 3.2TBps InfiniBand interconnectivity complemented by BlueField DPU management, for a 14-day period. These will provide the fastest speed for the interconnectivity of NVIDIA machines to be able to process large language and foundational models, across several machines. NVLINK is in-built inside each supercomputer, so up to 8 GPUs can process together inside a single machine. During this time, you will have a dedicated customer contact to offer guidance and expertise.

Our hardware is deployed and operated in highly efficient carbon-neutral, owned or third-party, data centers that use carbon-free or renewable energy. Based in Europe, our data centers are also data sovereign, so you can be confident of adhering to GDPR compliance.  

You will be entitled to up to 10 hours of mentoring and workshops from the Accelerator Review Panel, made up of Northern Data Group and our industry leading partners, who will be available throughout the 14-day period and beyond to offer support and guidance. You will also have access to Northern Data Group technical support for the 14-days on the same basis as our existing customers.

There are several use cases that our GenAI cloud is set up for, from deep learning inference and training, graphics and simulation workflows, and high-performance data analytics; to model training for AI, rendering, CAD and foundational LLM training - to name a few!

As a startup, your organization must be a privately held for-profit organization, looking to harness AI to develop an innovative product or service. You must be comfortable using H100s as bare-metal-as-a-service.

Your business must also be operationally ready with cloud readiness, pre-installed software requirements and a Chief Technology Officer (or equivalent role) in place, maintain a working website, be officially incorporated, and be less than 10 years old.

We want to progress the concepts that have the potential to scale quickly and make the most impact. We welcome applications from any industry or sector.

We are looking for startups from a variety of backgrounds, who seek to harness ground-breaking AI innovation to build an impactful business or product.

You can apply via our form here.

No. This is a complimentary offering aimed at democratizing access to Generative AI innovation. There will be no financial commitment while the AI accelerator is running.

After applications close, applicants will be shortlisted based on the review criteria below. Shortlisted startups will then be put in front of our expert review panel to select those who are successful.

All applicants will be notified of the status of their applications: unsuccessful, shortlisted, or successful.

The review criteria for successful applicants includes:

• Readiness of startup to make best use of the 14-day program period (e.g. cloud readiness, ability to use GPUs as bare-metal-as-a-service)
• Ability to scale quickly from proof-of-concept
• Originality of idea for product or service

Of course! We hope that the AI Accelerator fast-tracks your proof-of-concept and that you will continue working with Northern Data Group, subject to our usual commercial terms. If you do not wish to continue, we will support in transferring your work back to you in line with our usual offboarding process.