EUR 196 mln contract awarded by Romania to Digi for AI project under SAFE sparks surprise

An EUR 196 million contract awarded by the intelligence services SRI to the private company Digi Communications (BVB: DIGI) under the EU-funded military endowment scheme SAFE prompted surprise when it was unveiled by the government as part of the broader set of contracts.

The project, listed as a dual-use project (military and civil use), aims at developing an "LLM-type integrated platform for cybersecurity, with full implementation in Romania," according to the government's statement, which briefly describes the EUR 196 million contract.

“[The] development of an integrated LLM-type platform for cybersecurity for a value of EUR 196,000,000, concluded with Digi Romania, the implementation being entirely in Romania," it reads.

Initially, the government did not specifically disclose that the contract was awarded by SRI.

In a statement to investors, Digi informed the market that the company's Romanian subsidiary has entered into a framework agreement with the Romanian Intelligence Service (SRI) for the development of “a data center and an integrated platform for the evaluation of large language artificial intelligence models (LLM) specialized in the field of cybersecurity, to be carried out under the SAFE /Readiness 2030 program.” In other words, the contract’s subject is not a LLM system itself, but rather an integration platform.

The framework agreement has a value of up to EUR 196 million, includes both hardware and software components, and will be implemented in phases over a period of four years, the company explained.

(Photo source: the company)