Artificial Intelligence

Spain Startups Advance Regional Innovation With BSC

The Barcelona Supercomputing Center's AI Factory Accelerator Programme is now in full operation, providing local startups with sovereign compute resources, technical support, and advanced training.

Radwan AbdulhadiEditor and technology writer

Published: October 20, 2026 · Updated: October 20, 2026 · 3 min read

Spain Startups Advance Regional Innovation With BSC — Image: NVIDIA Blog

Empowering Regional Startups Through Sovereign Compute

The Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC) AI Factory Accelerator Programme has transitioned into full operation following an initial pilot initiative. The program provides participating startups with access to sovereign compute capabilities, technical support, and dedicated training designed to foster innovation across multiple industries. As part of this expansion, access to specific BSC AI Factory services is now available directly through the NVIDIA Inception portal.

This operational framework is complemented by NVIDIA Inception, which equips member organizations with specialized training via open courses from the NVIDIA Deep Learning Institute, along with business mentoring, venture capital connections, and additional industry resources.

Infrastructure Expansion and Public-Sector Impact

As a public infrastructure supporting scientific and technological innovation, the MareNostrum 5 system—powered by NVIDIA accelerated computing—is scheduled for an upcoming extension. This upgrade will deliver expanded supercomputing access through the BSC AI Factory and other similar hubs across Europe. Recognized as one of the continent's first AI factories and the pioneering facility in Spain, the BSC AI Factory has successfully delivered more than 800 services to both private and public-sector clients since launching in April 2025.

AI Champions Recognized at Pilot Initiative Demo Day

During the pilot initiative's demo day, three standout members of NVIDIA Inception were named the BSC AI Factory Accelerator Programme’s official AI Champions. Among them, Qatium developed a water-network platform currently utilized by more than 250 utilities across 16 countries. The company is advancing its early production phase with Neural Water Intelligence technology, utilizing proprietary AI models trained on MareNostrum 5. Built upon NVIDIA accelerated computing, the technology incorporates the NVIDIA cuGraph library, the NVIDIA PhysicsNeMo framework, and NVIDIA Nemotron open models to help water utilities improve everyday operational decisions.

Another champion, OneCareAI, emerged as a research spin-off from the BSC itself. The team leveraged NVIDIA NIM microservices to build specialized technology capable of identifying hidden signs of atrial fibrillation—an irregular heart rhythm—within standard ECG readings, helping clinicians pinpoint patients at risk of stroke before an event occurs.

Rounding out the group of champions is Avatia, which constructed a voice-first, multi-agent system acting as agentic coworkers for pharmaceutical companies. The platform assists sales representatives while supplying physicians with transparent, curated medicine information to ensure treatments reach the correct patients more quickly. Avatia relies on NVIDIA NIM microservices, the NVIDIA Nemotron 3 open model family, and the open source NVIDIA NeMo Curator library.

Broad Industry Applications Across the Startup Cohort

Beyond the recognized champions, a wide range of other startups participating in the BSC AI Factory—including Agrikola AI, Elna Health, Lokutor, Montevive AI, Oppy, Pack2Earth, and Up2Smart—are actively contributing to the regional ecosystem. These companies span critical sectors such as precision agriculture, medical imaging, knowledge access, speech services, enterprise security, sales intelligence, and sustainable packaging.

The diverse cohort illustrates the expansive capabilities enabled by modern advanced intelligence, ranging from preventing strokes and detecting breast cancer subtypes prior to biopsy to accelerating medical knowledge retrieval for doctors. Additional applications include replacing petroleum-based plastics with biobased compostable materials and protecting agricultural crops using robotics instead of traditional chemical treatments.