DFKI, the University of Würzburg, TU Darmstadt, Beuth University of Applied Sciences Berlin and startups Ellamind and Merantix Momentum.
The SOOFI project aims to replace the Teuken-7B model The transition from Teuken-7B to a 100-billion-parameter architecture represents a fundamental shift in capability and infrastructure requirements. Teuken-7B was trained on the JUWELS supercomputer at Forschungszentrum Jülich, using 4-6 trillion tokens across 24 EU languages. The model’ s training data comprised approximately 50 % non-English content and 40 % English content.
Prof Wolfgang Nejdl from the L3S Research Center at Leibniz University Hannover says:“ With SOOFI, we are laying the foundation for the next generation of European AI models; sovereign, powerful and entirely in European hands. Large AI models t hat respect European values are essential for building trust in AI, especially in sensitive areas such
92 January 2026