Europe has officially entered the exascale computing era with the inauguration of its first supercomputer, JUPITER, on Friday at the Jülich Supercomputing Centre in Germany. Attended by dignitaries including German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, the launch marks a major milestone for the continent’s technological sovereignty.

The system is the first in Europe to break the exaflop barrier, performing over one quintillion calculations per second. Powered by NVIDIA technology, JUPITER will enable groundbreaking research in fields like AI, climate science, and medicine, providing a powerful tool for scientists and industry across the region.

This move signals Europe’s serious intent to compete at the highest level of high-performance computing. The €500 million project is a joint investment by the EuroHPC Joint Undertaking (EuroHPC JU), the German Federal Ministry of Research, and the state of North Rhine-Westphalia.

An Exascale Powerhouse Built on NVIDIA and Modular Design

At the heart of JUPITER is its “Booster module,” an immense, liquid-cooled cluster built by Eviden using its BullSequana XH3000 architecture. This initial component is specifically engineered for the most demanding large-scale simulations and artificial intelligence training workloads.

The powerhouse is composed of roughly 6,000 compute nodes, each equipped with four of NVIDIA’s GH200 Grace Hopper Superchips, bringing the total to approximately 24,000 superchips according to technical breakdowns. This massive array of processors is interconnected by NVIDIA’s Quantum-2 InfiniBand networking fabric, featuring over 51,000 connections to handle immense data throughput.

While its primary performance is measured at over one exaflop for traditional scientific tasks, JUPITER is expected to deliver up to 90 exaflops for AI-specific workloads, making it one of the world’s most powerful machines for developing and training large-scale artificial intelligence models as detailed by NVIDIA.

This architecture is specifically designed for massive-scale simulations and AI training. NVIDIA’s CEO, Jensen Huang, highlighted this integrated approach, stating, “JUPITER fuses high-performance computing and AI into a single architecture. A platform for next generation scientific computing, it will accelerate breakthroughs across every domain.”

 

The entire system is housed within an innovative modular data center, constructed in less than two years. It consists of about 50 specialized container modules covering over 2,300 square meters, roughly the size of half a soccer field, allowing for future expansion and reconfiguration according to Forschungszentrum Jülich.

A second, general-purpose “Cluster Module” is slated for 2026. This component will target workflows that do not rely on GPU acceleration and will be based on the Rhea1 processor from European chip designer SiPearl. This move underscores a strategic push to foster a homegrown European hardware ecosystem for high-performance computing.

Setting a New Standard for Green Supercomputing

Beyond its raw computational power, JUPITER establishes a new global benchmark for sustainable supercomputing. This commitment to efficiency was proven even before the full system went live; its early test module, known as JEDI, secured the number-one position on the Green500 ranking, officially making it the world’s most energy-efficient supercomputer module.

This focus on green computing is a direct response to a growing global challenge. With the International Energy Agency forecasting that the electricity demand of data centers could more than double by 2030, JUPITER’s design offers a forward-looking blueprint for resource-efficient high-performance computing as noted by its operators.

The system’s efficiency is achieved through a multi-faceted strategy, starting with its power source, which is entirely renewable energy. At its core is a highly sophisticated warm-water cooling system. This advanced liquid-cooling architecture is significantly more effective than traditional air cooling, drastically reducing the energy required to maintain optimal operating temperatures for the thousands of high-performance chips.

Crucially, this cooling system enables a powerful form of energy reuse. The heat captured from the processors is not simply vented as waste. Instead, the supercomputer is designed to be fully integrated into the heating network of the Forschungszentrum Jülich campus, where it will be used to heat buildings during its operation. This transforms a major operational cost—heat dissipation—into a valuable resource for the surrounding infrastructure.

This holistic approach to sustainability is a defining feature of the project. As Prof. Astrid Lambrecht, Chair of the Board of Directors at Forschungszentrum Jülich, noted, “what makes it truly unique, however, is its outstanding energy efficiency. JUPITER is the world’s most energy-efficient supercomputer in its performance class.”

Powering Europe’s Ambitions in AI and Scientific Research

JUPITER’s immense computational power will be a catalyst for European research. It will be the engine for the JUPITER AI Factory (JAIF), training sophisticated large language models and driving generative AI development. This capability is critical for creating sovereign AI solutions tailored to European needs.

Prof. Dr. Dr. Thomas Lippert of the Jülich Supercomputing Centre emphasized this potential, saying, “the most complex AI models can now be trained and applied – something that was not possible without JUPITER.” The system will also enable unprecedented detail in climate and weather modeling, helping scientists predict extreme events with far greater accuracy.

For instance, the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology will use JUPITER to run climate simulations with a spatial resolution of about one kilometer. This will allow for much more realistic depictions of extreme weather events like violent thunderstorms and heavy rainfall according to NVIDIA.

In neuroscience, researchers plan to simulate individual neurons to develop therapies for diseases like Alzheimer’s. JUPITER is also poised to break records in quantum simulation, potentially handling over 50 qubits—a major milestone for the field as detailed in early project outlines.

A Collaborative Push for European Tech Sovereignty

The inauguration was framed as a pivotal moment for Europe’s digital independence. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz declared, “with JUPITER, Germany now has the fastest supercomputer in Europe and the fourth fastest in the world! It opens up completely new possibilities – from training AI models to scientific simulations,” highlighting the system’s global standing.

Europe’s entry into the exascale club follows the United States, which already operates several systems at this scale, including Frontier, Aurora, and El Capitan.JUPITER’s launch is a clear statement of intent to close that gap and reduce reliance on non-European technology.

Ekaterina Zaharieva, the European Commissioner, said, “JUPITER strengthens Europe’s digital sovereignty, accelerates discovery, and ensures that the most powerful and sustainable computing resources are available to our researchers, innovators, and industries.”

JUPITER’s launch follows other major European AI infrastructure investments, such as Denmark’s Gefion supercomputer, and is part of a global trend of nations building sovereign AI capabilities, seen in projects from Taiwan to the UAE. It is now ranked the fourth fastest supercomputer in the world.