Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation donates SEK 1.6bn for AI and quantum technology academic research in Sweden.

The Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation (KAW), a Stockholm, Sweden-based foundation funded by individual members of the Wallenberg family, announced that it will award grants amounting to SEK 1.6 billion ($190M) for research into the development of quantum technology and artificial intelligence (AI) over the coming decade.

The Wallenberg Centre for Quantum Technology (WACQT) will be established and managed by Professor Per Delsing and hosted by the Chalmers University of Technology. The Foundation is granting SEK 600 million to the Center. The participating universities – Chalmers, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, and Lund University – are contributing additional funding together with Swedish companies. With these funds, the Center will have funds of nearly SEK 1 billion.

The Wallenberg Autonomous Systems and Software Program (WASP), launched in 2015 and hosted by Linköping University, is receiving additional funding of SEK 1 billion to develop competence in key AI fields: machine learning, deep learning and mathematics. The participating universities (Linköping University, Chalmers University of Technology, KTH Royal institute of Technology and Lund University) are contributing substantial additional funding together with Swedish companies. Fully operational the AI initiative will have received SEK 1.5 billion in funding of which SEK 1 billion from the Foundation.

Professor Danica Kragic (KTH) will lead the machine learning and deep learning research. Professor Johan Håstad (KTH) will head the AI-related mathematics research.

The Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation, established in 1917, is the largest private financier of research in Sweden and is part of The Wallenberg Foundations, a collective name for the public and private foundations funded by individual members of the Wallenberg family. The Foundation’s aim is to benefit Sweden by supporting Swedish basic research and education, mainly in medicine, technology, and the natural sciences.

The Wallenberg family is a prominent Swedish family renowned as bankers, industrialists, politicians, bureaucrats, diplomats.