Europe Hopes To Join Competitive AI Race With Supercomputer Jupiter (france24.com)
(Saturday September 06, 2025 @03:00AM (BeauHD)
from the new-challenger-appears dept.)
- Reference: 0179038396
- News link: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/25/09/05/2325200/europe-hopes-to-join-competitive-ai-race-with-supercomputer-jupiter
- Source link: https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20250905-europe-s-fastest-supercomputer-to-boost-ai-drive
Europe on Friday inaugurated [1]Jupiter , its first exascale supercomputer and the [2]most powerful AI machine on the continent . Built in Germany with 24,000 Nvidia chips, the 500-million-euro system aims to close the AI gap with the US and China while also advancing climate modeling, neuroscience, and renewable energy research. France 24 reports:
> Based at Juelich Supercomputing Centre in western Germany, it is Europe's first "exascale" supercomputer -- meaning it will be able to perform at least one quintillion (or one billion billion) calculations per second. The United States already has three such computers, all operated by the Department of Energy. Jupiter is housed in a centre covering some 3,600 meters (38,000 square feet) -- about half the size of a football pitch -- containing racks of processors, and packed with about 24,000 Nvidia chips, which are favored by the AI industry.
>
> Half the 500 million euros ($580 million) to develop and run the system over the next few years comes from the European Union and the rest from Germany. Its vast computing power can be accessed by researchers across numerous fields as well as companies for purposes such as training AI models. "Jupiter is a leap forward in the performance of computing in Europe," Thomas Lippert, head of the Juelich centre, told AFP, adding that it was 20 times more powerful than any other computer in Germany. [...]
>
> Yes, Jupiter will require on average around 11 megawatts of power, according to estimates -- equivalent to the energy used to power thousands of homes or a small industrial plant. But its operators insist that Jupiter is the most energy-efficient among the fastest computer systems in the world. It uses the latest, most energy-efficient hardware, has water-cooling systems and the waste heat that it generates will be used to heat nearby buildings, according to the Juelich centre.
[1] https://www.fz-juelich.de/en/ias/jsc/jupiter
[2] https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20250905-europe-s-fastest-supercomputer-to-boost-ai-drive
> Based at Juelich Supercomputing Centre in western Germany, it is Europe's first "exascale" supercomputer -- meaning it will be able to perform at least one quintillion (or one billion billion) calculations per second. The United States already has three such computers, all operated by the Department of Energy. Jupiter is housed in a centre covering some 3,600 meters (38,000 square feet) -- about half the size of a football pitch -- containing racks of processors, and packed with about 24,000 Nvidia chips, which are favored by the AI industry.
>
> Half the 500 million euros ($580 million) to develop and run the system over the next few years comes from the European Union and the rest from Germany. Its vast computing power can be accessed by researchers across numerous fields as well as companies for purposes such as training AI models. "Jupiter is a leap forward in the performance of computing in Europe," Thomas Lippert, head of the Juelich centre, told AFP, adding that it was 20 times more powerful than any other computer in Germany. [...]
>
> Yes, Jupiter will require on average around 11 megawatts of power, according to estimates -- equivalent to the energy used to power thousands of homes or a small industrial plant. But its operators insist that Jupiter is the most energy-efficient among the fastest computer systems in the world. It uses the latest, most energy-efficient hardware, has water-cooling systems and the waste heat that it generates will be used to heat nearby buildings, according to the Juelich centre.
[1] https://www.fz-juelich.de/en/ias/jsc/jupiter
[2] https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20250905-europe-s-fastest-supercomputer-to-boost-ai-drive
Europe Hopes To Exacerbate climate change. (Score:2)
by polyp2000 ( 444682 )
The energy usage of AI on banks of GPU's in datacentres is a major obstacle in efforts to combat climate change.
Competing over who has the most powerful AI is only going to make this situation worse.
You might worry about losing your job to an AI , but the truth is that once again we have more confirmation that we are on the wrong trajectory. With a 5% chance of changing course to one that does not end in socio economic collase, climate breakdown and eventually mass extinction.
There is simply no chance when
"Europe" who? (Score:2)
Many Europeans are hoping that this bubble will burst already ...