Sovereign AI from Augsburg.
In the city on the river Lech, we build sovereign AI infrastructure for European enterprises. Secure, compliant, and powered by renewable energy from the river that runs through our hometown.
Born in Augsburg, built for Europe.
Open Hippo's roots are in the Augsburg region — a city with 2,000 years of history in engineering, trade, and innovation. The river Lech that runs through our hometown doesn't just shape the landscape — it supplies the renewable energy that powers our AI infrastructure. We chose to stay here deliberately, because great technology doesn't need a Silicon Valley address — it needs conviction, craftsmanship, and roots.
Open source at heart — helping, sharing, building together.
We believe the best technology is built in the open. That's why we contribute to open-source projects, share our learnings publicly, and build on top of community-driven tools like vLLM, Docling, and Lucene. For us, open source isn't a licensing model — it's a mindset: helping others succeed, sharing knowledge freely, and trusting that when everyone contributes, everyone wins.
The LEW Green Data Center — where our AI lives.
Our infrastructure runs in the LEW Green Data Center, powered by 100% renewable energy from the river Lech. This isn't just a hosting choice — it's a statement: powerful AI doesn't have to cost the planet. Because we run our own hardware in a sovereign, GDPR-compliant facility, your data never leaves European soil — no US cloud dependencies, no compromises on privacy.
DZ.S — our idea kitchen.
If the LEW data center is our living room, then the Digitales Zentrum Schwaben is our kitchen — the place where new ideas are prototyped, put to the test, and turned into real products. Located at the Sigma Technopark in Augsburg, DZ.S is home to a community of digital founders who share knowledge, challenge each other, and build together.
Partners & network.
You can't build sovereign AI alone. We work with regional infrastructure, research, and technology partners who share our values.
LEW Green Data Center
Our data center running on 100% renewable energy from the river Lech — German jurisdiction, auditable to the metal.
aitiRaum
Augsburg's AI innovation hub and our home base — close to customers, applied research, and talent.
OpenTeams
Our partner for open-source AI — moving organisations off proprietary SaaS onto open, self-hosted workflows.
Wir können KI
The Augsburg AI alliance — five companies bringing turnkey, sovereign AI to the Mittelstand.
What Open Hippo stands for.
The principles that guide every decision we make.
Sovereign AI Without Compromise.
Your data doesn't leave your hands — or your continent. We run self-hosted infrastructure down to the metal, for full GDPR and EU AI Act compliance, no compromises.
AI That Actually Works.
We don't build AI for its own sake. Every product we ship is designed around a real problem your organization has — and built to solve it.
Sustainability Without Greenwashing.
Our infrastructure runs on 100% renewable energy at the LEW Green Data Center — powered by the river Lech and the Augsburg sun.
Open to the Core.
Open standards, transparent pricing, honest communication. We believe trust is earned through radical openness — not polished by a marketing department.
The team behind Open Hippo.
Engineers, researchers, and builders who care deeply about responsible AI.
Dr. Thomas Fraunholz
Founder & CEO
Regular speaker at PyData and PyCon conferences and CUDA expert. Founded Open Hippo to bring deep AI infrastructure expertise to sovereign European deployments.
Tim Köhler
Engineer
MLOps and DevOps specialist with deep Kubernetes experience, responsible for the reliability and scalability of the serving infrastructure.
Dennis Rall
Researcher
PhD candidate in computer science researching LLM security — how language models can be exploited, and how to build systems that hold up under attack.
Eduard Kesler
Engineer
Full-stack engineer focused on RAG pipelines and Lucene-based retrieval, making enterprise knowledge reliably accessible to AI.
Klaus Happacher
Engineer
Backend engineer specializing in Kotlin, building the APIs and services that connect Open Hippo's AI capabilities to enterprise workflows.
"There are many ways to think about and live sovereign AI. But in the end, it almost always comes down to open source. And that's exactly where we already stand today with Open Hippo."
Dr. Thomas Fraunholz
CEO & Founder, Open Hippo
Ready for sovereign AI?
Let's talk about your challenges, no strings attached. Together we'll find the best solution for your needs — fast, straightforward, and tailored to you.