From Silicon Valley, Catalan president urges leadership 'without asking permission'

Catalan president Salvador Illa has dedicated the second day of his trip to California to meeting with managers and employees of technology companies, with Catalans who work there, and with students from Stanford University.

After these meetings, Illa wanted to send a message of encouragement for the possibilities that Catalonia has in the field of AI and new technologies.

“Catalonia must get rid of its complexes," the president forcefully declared. "We must lead these next ten years without asking anyone for permission.”

Illa gave this speech before then sponsoring two agreements of the Barcelona Supercomputing Center to improve AI systems and MareNostrum 6.

The Socialist assured that Catalonia has the potential, the people, and the tools to be an international technological powerhouse. “Let's get rid of our complexes and inaugurate a positive decade for Catalonia, leading in innovation and new technologies, and taking advantage of the highly trained personnel we have.”

After speaking with Stanford university students, he explained that he had conveyed to them the need to “put artificial intelligence at the service of the common good.”

Barcelona Supercomputing Centre agreements

The president also accompanied the signing of two agreements of the Barcelona Supercomputing Centre (BSC) with two of the leading technology companies in Silicon Valley on Wednesday.

The first was an expansion of the BSC's relationship with NVIDIA, a leading company with which it has been collaborating for years on joint initiatives based around artificial intelligence, focused on areas such as life sciences, weather forecasting and climate change or engineering, among others.

Elsewhere, the BSC has signed an agreement with Supermicro to enhance European leadership in Artificial Intelligence. Supermicro is one of the world's largest technology companies specializing in comprehensive high-performance computing solutions, in addition to providing software for storage systems, data centers and artificial intelligence.