Autonomous Driving Pony.ai Signs MoU for Luxembourg Operations, Data Centre

During the first part of their working visit to California in the United States, Luxembourg's Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, Xavier Bettel, and the Minister of the Economy, SMEs, Energy and Tourism, Lex Delles, had a meeting with Pony.ai, the world leader in autonomous driving technology. 

This company is a pioneer in autonomous mobility technologies and is behind robotaxi and robotruck pilot projects. Given Pony.ai's intention to establish a European centre of excellence in research and development in Luxembourg, and given the desire of the Luxembourg government to make the Grand Duchy a pioneering European country in terms of autonomous driving, Minister Delles signed a memorandum of understanding with Dr. James Peng, co-founder of the company.

Pony.ai intends in particular to considerably strengthen its capabilities within the European Union and to develop tailor-made solutions for European users. The company also plans to establish its sales, maintenance and support operations in the Grand Duchy to ensure the provision of comprehensive services. Pony.ai also intends to develop its European data centre in Luxembourg, focusing on secure, efficient processing that complies with national and European requirements for the field of connected and automated vehicles. Targeted acquisition of talent – particularly highly qualified engineers – as well as a local training and skills development program complement the activities to be developed from this base.

Minister Delles declared in this context that “the intelligent mobility sector is among the priorities of Luxembourg’s economic diversification. We aim to make the Grand Duchy a pioneering European country in terms of autonomous driving. I am therefore very satisfied to have signed an MoU with the company Pony.ai, a leader in autonomous mobility technologies and services. This is an important opportunity to promote the technical expertise of the smart mobility sector in Luxembourg.”

Minister Bettel welcomed the signing of a memorandum of understanding with Pony.ai in the field of automated driving: “The fact that Pony.ai has chosen Luxembourg reconfirms the excellent environment offered by the Grand -Duchy of innovative companies. We have a digital ecosystem that enables high-performance, reliable and secure data processing. Furthermore, there is synergy between Pony.ai's technical expertise and the government's national development strategies which aim to catalyse technological research and development, local job creation, skills development and economic growth sustainable."

After this visit, Ministers Bettel and Delles were received in Mountain View at Google by Marcus Jadotte, “Vice-President, Government Affairs & Policy”, Joris Schoonis, “Managing Director BeNeLux - Google Cloud” and Steven Kan “Director Operations, Strategy, and Chief of Staff, Cloud AI”, and Lie Junius, “Senior Director, Government Affairs & Public Policy - Google Cloud”. Discussions focused on developments in artificial intelligence and the evolution of the European market. Opportunities for collaboration with the University of Luxembourg were also discussed.

Ministers Bettel and Delles then visited Nvidia; world leader in graphics cards for high-performance computing, Nvidia has been collaborating with Luxembourg since 2019, following the creation of a joint artificial intelligence research laboratory in the Grand Duchy. Nvidia also cooperates with Luxprovide, in charge of the operation and management of the Luxembourg supercomputer MeluXina.

Ministers Bettel and Delles also paid a courtesy visit to PayPal.