The BSC AI Factory (BSC AIF) team marked its presence at Mobile World Congress 2026 (MWC26), held 2–5 March in Barcelona, one of the world's most influential technology events. With a dedicated space within the Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC) booth at the 4 Years From Now (4YFN) exhibition floor, the BSC AIF brought together startups, SMEs, and public organizations to explore how high-performance AI services, supercomputing infrastructure, and expert support can drive international growth and competitiveness.
Led by Mariona Sanz Ausàs, Head of Innovation and Business Development at the Barcelona Supercomputing Center, the BSC AIF used MWC26 as a platform to demonstrate how supercomputing and AI can accelerate technological and business innovation and how collaboration between research centers, startups, and companies can strengthen the European AI ecosystem.
Our presence at MWC26 confirmed the enormous demand for practical, trustworthy AI solutions among European businesses. By giving visibility to the startups, we helped them make relevant contacts, and the majority generated meaningful opportunities. The event was a powerful demonstration of what the BSC AI Factory can offer to the ecosystem.
16 AI Startups Showcasing Breakthrough Solutions
The BSC stand at 4YFN became a hub of innovation during MWC26, with 16 carefully selected startups demonstrating their AI-powered solutions to an international audience of investors, industry leaders, and technology professionals. The startups represented a diverse range of sectors, including health, quantum computing, urban intelligence, sustainability, privacy-preserving AI, and industrial automation — all areas where artificial intelligence is poised to deliver transformative impact.
Alongside the startup showcase, a series of talks presented our service catalogue and highlighted open opportunities for startups, including access to incubation and acceleration spaces backed by BSC's world-class research infrastructure.
Session 1: Scaling AI Startups Across Borders
Monday, March 2
The opening session brought together a panel of European AI leaders to address a central question: how can AI startups scale across borders? With Europe's AI competitiveness depending on strong cross-border collaboration, the discussion spotlighted how AI Factory France and BSC AI Factory together empower startups with cutting-edge compute, shared infrastructure, top talent, and tailored acceleration programs.
The session featured Guillaume Rostand, President of French Tech Barcelona; Stéphane Requena, Director of Technology and Innovation at GENCI and representative of AI Factory France; and Pau Rué, Co-Founder of Elna Health — moderated by Sergi Besionas, BSC Spin-off Portfolio Manager. Together, they offered founders a practical roadmap for accelerating innovation and scaling between France, Barcelona, and across Europe.
Session 2: Discover the BSC AI Factory Service Catalogue
Tuesday, March 3
The second session showed startups, SMEs, innovators, AI ecosystem players, and public bodies how to access supercomputing infrastructure, expert support, curated data environments, and specialized AI tools to accelerate innovation. Attendees gained practical insights into how to leverage the BSC AI Factory effectively — whether testing new ideas, developing prototypes, or scaling projects — and explored the next generation of AI services through the BSC AIF Service Catalogue.
The panel brought together leaders from across Europe and Türkiye, representing startups, industry, the public sector, and research: Stéphane Requena (GENCI, AI Factory France), Daniel Quintas (Comudel.com, Portugal), Jaume Miralles (General Director of Artificial Intelligence, Generalitat de Catalunya), and Dr. Kamer Kaya (Associate Professor at Sabanci University and Founder of Dakik Software Technologies), moderated by Mariona Sanz Ausàs, BSC Head of Innovation and Business Development.
Additionally, Albert Cañigueral, BSC AIF One-stop-shop Manager in Spain, presented the Service Catalogue in detail — a portfolio of 24 specialized services structured around six strategic pillars: access to advanced supercomputing, data management, technical advisory, responsible AI and regulatory compliance, sector-specific consulting, and professional training and development programs.
This end-to-end approach guides organizations from an initial AI maturity assessment all the way to the deployment of scalable, production-ready solutions. As of January 2026, we had already delivered 505 services, selected 14 strategic projects, trained 314 participants, and evaluated approximately 92 initiatives within the EuroHPC framework.
Session 3:Growing AI Ventures at BSC AI Factory Spaces
Tuesday, 3 March
Immediately following, the final session of the afternoon introduced attendees to the BSC AI Factory's co-working and incubation spaces across Barcelona, Guimarães, Lisbon, and Bucharest. Speakers highlighted the open calls, resources, and community programs available to startups and SMEs looking to scale, with first-hand perspectives from both BSC AI Factory representatives and active ventures benefiting from the spaces.
The session featured Elisabeth Cabot, CEO, CTO and Co-Founder of Vecify; Pedro Marques, Project Manager at CNCA; and Dragoș–Cătălin Barbu, Head of Cloud Computing at ICI — moderated by Arnau Cuatrecasas, BSC AI Factory Space Manager — offering a concrete and inspiring picture of how our spaces drive innovation, collaboration, and growth across Europe.
MWC26 confirmed what the BSC AI Factory has been building towards: a growing demand across Europe for practical, trustworthy, and high-performance AI solutions. From cross-border startup scaling to public sector transformation, the conversations and connections made at 4YFN reflected the breadth of our mission and the momentum behind it. With 16 startups showcased, four sessions delivered, and a steady stream of new collaborations initiated, the event marked another step forward in the BSC AI Factory's work to turn scientific excellence into real competitive advantage for Europe.