CSC: A new pan-European supercomputer and a European Union AI Factory to be placed in Finland

Finland has been chosen as one of the locations for the EuroHPC Joint Undertaking’s next-generation pan-European supercomputers. The new system will be placed in CSC’s data center in Kajaani, Finland, which is also home to the LUMI supercomputer, inaugurated in 2022. In addition, one of the European Union’s AI Factories will be placed in Finland. It is a significant investment that ensures Finland’s pioneering position in high-performance computing long into the future.

The EuroHPC Joint Undertaking (JU) has selected the hosting sites of the next EuroHPC supercomputers and AI Factories. One of the chosen hosting sites is Finland, led by CSC – IT Center for Science, together with a LUMI AI Factory consortium of five other countries: the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Norway and Poland.

An AI Factory is an ecosystem that enables AI researchers and developers to have one-stop access to the high-performance computing (HPC), data sets and skills they need. The aim is to make it as easy as possible for both scientific researchers and industrial innovators to adopt AI methods on a large scale.

“This is a very significant investment. It ensures that Finland will remain at the forefront of supercomputing development well into the future. In addition, it will contribute to the digitalization of society as a whole, boost the data economy, and develop new technologies such as AI and quantum technologies,” says Kimmo Koski, Managing Director of CSC – IT Center for Science.

The needed infrastructure is ready at CSC’s data center in Kajaani and CSC has strong expertise and capacity to host the new supercomputer and AI Factory. The new supercomputer will eventually replace the current LUMI supercomputer. The data center is one of the most energy-efficient and climate-friendly data centers in the world, which contributes to reducing the carbon footprint of digitalization.

Significant societal impact

The societal impact of supercomputing is significant. According to an independent study made in early 2024, one euro invested in CSC’s HPC services brings back 25–37 euros in return as a direct economic impact.  

Both scientific research and industrial RDI are increasingly based on data, which is why powerful tools such as supercomputers are needed. Understanding and solving the world’s most complex challenges requires analyzing and combining large amounts of data from different disciplines.

For example, the LUMI supercomputer is used to model climate change and biodiversity loss using digital twins of the Earth. Supercomputers are important tools in many industries, e.g., for the development of new fuels and materials. Without supercomputing, modern medical research would not be possible either.

High-performance computing also plays a crucial role in space research, which is becoming increasingly important for society due, among other things, to increasing satellite traffic. Advanced and high-resolution modelling also enables much more accurate weather forecasts, which are widely used by society.

AI applications like large language models also require significant computing resources. LUMI, Europe’s third most powerful supercomputer, is already one of the world’s most powerful AI platforms for science. As an example, the Finnish company Silo AI has developed its large language models using the LUMI supercomputer. Several other companies have also made use of LUMI in their product development.

“We are excited to be given this task. The LUMI AI Factory will enable a whole new range of services to support research and industrial use of AI. We can build the most efficient and advanced public HPC research infrastructure in the world,” says Pekka Manninen, who oversees the LUMI AI Factory project at CSC.

This article was first published on 11 December by CSC.