Portugal Launches Amália, Its First Open-Source AI Model

Portugal has released Amália, a fully open-source AI model built with €5.5M in EU funds — releasing the model, datasets, and source code as Europe pushes for technological sovereignty.

Portugal has joined the growing European push for AI sovereignty, releasing Amália — a fully open-source large language model developed with €5.5 million in EU recovery funds.

Built by a consortium of Portuguese universities and research centers, Amália is designed to give businesses, public services, and researchers a homegrown alternative to models from OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google. The name honors Amália Rodrigues, Portugal's legendary fado singer.

The model runs on two of Europe's most powerful supercomputers — Deucalion in Portugal and MareNostrum 5 in Barcelona — keeping all data processing on European soil. Potential applications range from virtual museum guides and intelligent tutoring systems to decision-support tools for the Portuguese Navy.

Prime Minister Luís Montenegro framed the launch in stark terms: "Europe's strategic autonomy is today, perhaps more than ever, tied to AI."

The release includes the full model weights, training datasets, and source code — making Portugal one of the first EU member states to field a sovereign open-source AI offering. It comes as the European Union accelerates efforts to build its own AI infrastructure, with France, Germany, and Italy each pursuing parallel national model projects.

Sources: NewsBytes, Open Source For U, Reuters via MSN