AI NATION, Germany’s platform for AI start-ups, welcomes hessian.AI as a strategic partner

Berlin/Munich/Darmstadt, 1 October 2026. The strategic partnership with the Hessian Center for Artificial Intelligence (hessian.AI) strengthens AI NATION’s presence in Hesse and links the nationwide start-up network with the AI research, start-up ecosystem, and high-performance computing infrastructure of Darmstadt, the AI model region.

AI NATION, funded primarily by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy through the exist program, emerged from the Berlin and Munich AI model regions, has already supported nearly 300 AI teams, and now supports AI start-ups from across Germany. With hessian.AI, the AI model region of Hesse is now joining the initiative: hessian.AI brings its AI computing infrastructure, end-to-end support for AI applications, its data-driven ‘AI Startup Landscape Hessen’, its start-up network, and its experience as an AI model region to the partnership, and will participate in the strategic development of AI NATION going forward.

“We can see that demand for our programmes is no longer limited to Berlin and Munich. The strategic partnership with hessian.AI boosts our presence in one of Germany’s most dynamic start-up regions,” says Dr Tina Klüwer, Executive Director of AI NATION. “At the same time, we are gaining a partner which, as a pilot region for AI, brings with it five years’ experience in supporting AI start-ups and has its own AI computing infrastructure. This is extremely valuable for the joint further development of AI NATION,” Klüwer adds.

Specific support for selected AI start-ups

The partnership will lead to greater integration between the two programmes: teams receiving funding from hessian.AI during the current AI NATION Autumn Batch 2026 will gain access to AI NATION’s resources, workshops and partner programmes, as well as to AI NATION’s network of experts, investors and industry representatives. In return, AI NATION receives nominations via hessian.AI for research-based and innovative AI start-ups from Hesse.

hessian.AI’s key contribution to the partnership is its computing infrastructure. With forty.TWO and forty.THREE, hessian.AI has its own high-performance GPU infrastructure for training and inference of AI models. Through the hessian.AI Service Centre, the organisation also has experience in making these resources available to researchers, knowledge transfer initiatives, start-ups and businesses.

Added to this is hessian.AI’s involvement in the JUPITER AI Factory (JAIF). A further infrastructure is being developed around the European exascale supercomputer JUPITER, which is intended to provide businesses and research organisations with access to European high-performance computing capacity for AI. hessian.AI also has close links with the ‘Reasonable Artificial Intelligence’ (RAI) Cluster of Excellence, led by the Technical University of Darmstadt. The close institutional and personnel links ensure a connection to cutting-edge AI research at the university.

“If we want Germany’s cutting-edge research to give rise to internationally successful AI companies, we need to look beyond start-up grants and accelerator programmes,” says Carlina Bennison, who co-leads AI Startup Rising with Tobias Kehl. Kehl adds: “ Compute is increasingly becoming a strategic resource for AI start-ups. It will be crucial to enable start-up teams to access high-performance computing infrastructure without becoming dependent on non-European providers at an early stage.”

Collaborations with other regions will follow in the coming weeks. The aim is to maintain regional priorities whilst making services, networks and infrastructure more easily accessible across regions. The objective is to ensure that German AI start-ups are perceived not only as part of individual ecosystems, but as part of a networked, internationally visible AI nation.