Velvet AI

Velvet AI
Developer	Almawave [1]
Initial release	29 January 2025 [2]
Operating system	Web app
Available in	Italian, English, Spanish, Portuguese-Brazilian, German and French
Type	Chatbot
License	Apache-2.0
Website	huggingface.co/Almawave

Velvet AI is a family of multilingual generative artificial intelligence models developed by Almawave, ^[3] an Italian AI company. The Velvet models, including Velvet 14B and Velvet 2B, are foundational large language models (LLMs) designed and developed in Italy on Almawave's proprietary architecture. They were trained on the Leonardo supercomputer managed by CINECA and have been released in open-weight format. ^{[4] [5] [6]} The Velvet models are designed to be energy-efficient. They support multiple languages, with an emphasis on Italian. ^{[7] [8]}

Models

Velvet 2B

Velvet 2B, the model with 2 billion parameters, was trained in Italian and English on over 2 trillion tokens of data. ^[9]

Velvet 14B

Velvet 14B was trained on over 4 trillion tokens across six languages, with Italian comprising approximately 23% of the data. In addition to linguistic data, Velvet incorporates over 400 billion tokens from more than 100 programming languages to facilitate more structured inferences. ^[10]

The development of Velvet AI reflects Almawave's strategic investment in creating high-performance, energy-efficient AI solutions that align with European regulatory frameworks. The models are ready to be used on major market platforms in the cloud, on-premise, and on the edge, and are integrated into Almawave's AIWave platform. ^{[11] [12]}

References

1. "Almawave presents Velvet: the sustainable and high-performance italian AI". almawave.com. Retrieved 19 February 2025.
2. "ALMAWAVE PRESENTS VELVET: THE SUSTAINABLE AND HIGH-PERFORMANCE ITALIAN AI" (PDF). almawave.com. Retrieved 19 February 2025.
3. "AI, ad Almawave un finanziamento da 20 milioni per sviluppare l'intelligenza artificiale italiana Velvet" (in Italian). milanofinanza.it. 9 December 2024. Retrieved 16 February 2025.
4. "Velvet, presentata l'IA italiana di Almawave: cos'è e come funziona" (in Italian). tg24.sky.it. 30 January 2025. Retrieved 13 February 2025.
5. "Almawave lancia Velvet: l'AI italiana disegnata per essere "efficiente, agile e a basso consumo"" (in Italian). repubblica.it. repubblica.it. 29 January 2025. Retrieved 13 February 2025.
6. "Almawave presenta Velvet, la via italiana dell'IA" (in Italian). ansa.it. 30 January 2025. Retrieved 13 February 2025.
7. "Sandei (Almawave): "Elemento italiano valore aggiunto nell'IA, decisiva la competenza"" (in Italian). ansa.it. 30 January 2025. Retrieved 13 February 2025.
8. "Almawave lancia Velvet: l'intelligenza artificiale made in Italy punta su agilità e sostenibilità" (in Italian). corriere.it. 30 January 2025. Retrieved 13 February 2025.
9. "ALMAWAVE PRESENTA VELVET: L'IA ITALIANA SOSTENIBILE ED EFFICACE" (PDF). almaviva.it (in Italian). January 2025. Retrieved 14 October 2025.
10. "Velvet-14B". huggingface.co. 10 February 2025. Retrieved 13 February 2025.
11. "Almawave lancia Velvet, la Gen AI che parla italiano. Ecco cosa sappiamo" (in Italian). ilsole24ore.com. ilsole24ore.com. 31 January 2025. Retrieved 14 February 2025.
12. "Almawave lancia Velvet: l'AI italiana disegnata per essere "efficiente, agile e a basso consumo"" (in Italian). finanza.lastampa.it. finanza.lastampa.it. 29 January 2025. Retrieved 16 February 2025.

See also

• CINECA
• Istituto Italiano per l’Intelligenza Artificiale (AI4I)