In a bid to boost its AI research and development capabilities, the UK government has announced a $273 million investment to build the country’s fastest ever AI supercomputer. The supercomputer, dubbed Isambard-AI, is expected to be operational by the summer of 2024 and will be housed at the University of Bristol.
Isambard-AI will be equipped with 5,448 NVIDIA GH200 Grace Hopper Superchips, which will give it a peak performance of 21 exaflops. This makes Isambard-AI one of the most powerful AI supercomputers in the world, and it is expected to rank among the top five on the Top500 list of supercomputers when it comes online.
The UK government has said that Isambard-AI will be used to accelerate research and development in a wide range of fields, including robotics, data analytics, drug discovery, and climate change. The supercomputer will also be used to train and develop new AI algorithms and applications.
The investment in Isambard-AI is part of the UK government’s wider strategy to position the country as a global leader in AI. In 2022, the government published a National AI Strategy, which outlined a number of initiatives to boost the UK’s AI sector, including increased investment in research and development, support for AI startups and scale-ups, and the development of a new AI skills pipeline.
The construction of Isambard-AI is being led by Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE), which is working in partnership with NVIDIA. The supercomputer will be housed in a new data center at the University of Bristol, which is expected to be completed in 2023.