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Danish supercomputer Gefion, a public-private partnership between the Novo Nordisk Foundation and the Export and Investment Fund of Denmark (EIFO), was symbolically turned on in October 2024. The computer relies on 1,528 Nvidia GPUs. <\/p>\n
Keystone <\/p>\n
Pharma companies are racing to acquire microchips and achieve the most powerful AI capacity in the industry. Experts say it\u2019s encouraging for future drug development but bottlenecks remain.\n<\/p>\n
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March 26, 2026 – 12:08\n<\/p>\n
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\n From innovative treatments to unequal access to medicine, I cover health topics and keep an eye on Switzerland’s Health Valley.
\nI’m Swiss-Turkish, and have a background in communications, journalism and photography. Before joining SWI swissinfo.ch, I covered technology and health at Euronews, and my work has been featured in international outlets including Fayn Press, Mediapart, Le Temps and Times of Malta. <\/p>\n
Swiss drug manufacturer Roche announced last week that it would expand its collaboration with semiconductor giant Nvidia and become the pharmaceutical company with the largest graphics processing unit (GPU) footprint across the industry. GPUs are microchips made of semiconductors that can handle large calculations simultaneously, making their compute capacity key to complex AI models.<\/p>\n Roche\u2019s deal comes on the back of a multi-year research collaboration struck in November 2023 between its American subsidiary Genentech and Nvidia. Both companies had vowed to accelerate new drug discoveries and delivery thanks to a next-generation AI platform.<\/p>\n The deal comes as pharma companies race to integrate AI into their workflows and drug development. Two other pharma giants, Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly, made similar announcements in the past 18 months. These cross-industry mega-deals matter as they indicate which drug manufacturer will have the most powerful AI capacity in the coming years.<\/p>\n \u201cComputer chips, and GPUs in particular, are the hottest commodity right now. Everybody wants to get their hands on Nvidia chips,\u201d said Christian Hein, an independent consultant in AI in biopharma and healthcare, with previous work experience at Novartis and Amgen.<\/p>\n What\u2019s in the deal?<\/p>\n The agreement will boost Roche\u2019s semiconductor arsenal, which is set to reach over 3,500 cloud-based and physical GPUs \u2013 the largest capacity ever announced by a single pharmaceutical company.<\/p>\n Roche\u2019s GPUs will be set up across Europe and the United States and serve what Nvidia calls an AI factoryExternal link<\/a>, a data centre \u201cspecifically optimised for artificial intelligence workloads\u201d. The AI factory will support the drug developer\u2019s R&D, manufacturing, diagnostics, digital pathology and digital health units.<\/p>\n Roche acquired GPUs from Nvidia\u2019s latest product range Blackwell, which the semiconductor company claims is the largest GPU ever built. Blackwell microchips have 2.5 times more transistors and are up to 30 times more efficient than those from the previous range, called Hopper, released in 2022. Roche expects its new microchips to be running in the second half of 2026, and believes its AI factory will be in full gear by early 2027.\u00a0<\/p>\n As is customary with commercial deals, financial details weren\u2019t disclosed by either of the companies. Although Nvidia likely sells the circuits in bulk, when the model was first announced in March 2024 CEO Jensen Huang said Blackwell chips would costExternal link<\/a> between $30,000 (CHF23,700) and $40,000 per unit. Roche didn\u2019t disclose its AI budget, but a spokesperson said the manufacturer viewed \u201cthe AI Factory as a critical, long-term strategic investment in Roche\u2019s future\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Is Roche\u2019s deal better than its competitors\u2019?\u00a0<\/p>\n While silicon, the most common material for the basis of chips, might not be rare, four minerals central to its conductivity are dependent on China and Russia. On top of geopolitical risks, the race for AI supremacy is also putting intense pressure on demand and turning GPUs into rare resources. The semiconductor market was valued at $775 billion in 2024 and could reach $1.6 trillion by 2030, according to recent McKinsey estimatesExternal link<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n In May 2024, clinical biotech firm Recursion said it completed the largest supercomputer in pharmaceutical history, with 504 Hopper GPUs. But it was beaten to the title less than six months later by a Danish supercomputer from Novo Nordisk Foundation and the Export and Investment Fund of Denmark, which used 1,528 of the same chips. A year later, in October 2025, Eli Lilly announced \u201cthe world\u2019s largest, most powerful AI factory\u201d, with 1,016 Blackwell Ultras. By the time Roche\u2019s new AI factory is operational, Nvidia will have already launched a new range of processorsExternal link<\/a>.<\/p>\n >>Is pharma living up to its AI promise? Listen to our podcast episode:<\/p>\n \n More<\/p>\n More <\/p>\n New treatments\n <\/p>\n Science podcast: the AI revolution in drug development <\/p>\n This content was published on <\/p>\n Jan 30, 2026 <\/p>\n In episode 4 of the Swiss Connection Science podcast we explore the role of AI in drug development. <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Read more: Science podcast: the AI revolution in drug development \u201cThere is not a single CEO who is not under pressure from his board to say, \u2018I\u2019ve got my AI strategy, I\u2019ve got it figured out\u2019,\u201d Hein said. What isn\u2019t clear from these announcements, including Roche\u2019s, is how the chip footprint will translate into use cases. \u201cThese big partnerships sound very sexy and I\u2019m not saying companies can\u2019t pull it off, but making it work in real life is a much bigger challenge,\u201d the expert added.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe new GPUs will power solutions across the entire value chain in both pharmaceuticals and diagnostics,\u201d a Roche spokesperson said about the company\u2019s two main divisions. Roche has said its AI factory has already powered digital transformation across the organisation, including helping scientists test hypotheses at scale and ramping up production of new drugs twice as fast, thanks to virtual replicas of production lines known as digital twins.\u00a0<\/p>\n Future challenges<\/p>\n But AI in pharma still hasn\u2019t reached its full potential, analysts say, and challenges remain, including fully integrating the technology in all processes and being able to attract talent. \u201cDrug development processes are very complicated and fragmented,\u201d Hein said.<\/p>\n Not only is biological data harder to digitalise and navigate because it is \u201cmessy, unstructured and fragmented\u201d compared to text, but manufacturing medicine requires experiments in specialised laboratories, including clinical trials, to ensure safety for patients.<\/p>\n Swiss bank UBS reported in March that AI in the pharma industry is currently most impactful in operations and accelerates regulatory preparation and financial processes. \u201cAI can help identify targets in early drug discovery, but [\u2026] it is ultimately still limited in its ability to reliably design drugs that achieve a predicted clinical outcome,\u201d the bank\u2019s analysis said.<\/p>\n >> Find out how one tech company has been venturing into drug development:<\/p>\n \n More<\/p>\n More <\/p>\n AI and medicine\n <\/p>\n From London to Lausanne: how Isomorphic Labs is rewriting drug discovery <\/p>\n This content was published on <\/p>\n Jan 30, 2026 <\/p>\n Google DeepMind spin-off Isomorphic Labs is expanding in Switzerland to achieve its ambitious goal to \u201csolve all diseases\u201d with AI. <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Read more: From London to Lausanne: how Isomorphic Labs is rewriting drug discovery According to UBS\u2019 findings, Roche dropped a drug for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, an incurable lung disease that impacts breathing, because the \u201cAI-identified target\u201d performed worse than placebo in phase two clinical trials.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re going to see major benefits of AI across pretty much every single step of the workflow of pharma companies, but you\u2019re only going to reap real benefits when you actually review your processes and job titles and review the way you work,\u201d said Hein, predicting that changing an industry that hasn\u2019t seen major changes in the last 20 years could take three to five years.<\/p>\n In the meantime, drug developers are also facing a global, cross-industry war for AI talent. Some tech companiesExternal link<\/a> are offering up to $100 million in bonuses. Pfizer CEO Alfred Bourla reportedly earnedExternal link<\/a> $27.6 million in 2025. Pharma\u2019s only advantage in this talent war would be its mission-driven work, said Hein: \u201cPharma after all, is about saving lives and curing major diseases\u201d.<\/p>\n Edited by Virginie Mangin\/gw<\/p>\n Articles in this story <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Danish supercomputer Gefion, a public-private partnership between the Novo Nordisk Foundation and the Export and Investment Fund of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":39096,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[124],"tags":[101,2850,300,3382,4875,566,461,134],"class_list":{"0":"post-39095","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-roche","8":"tag-article","9":"tag-beat-ai-and-medicine","10":"tag-beat-pharma-supply-chains","11":"tag-follow-ups","12":"tag-medical-research","13":"tag-multinationals","14":"tag-production-type-original","15":"tag-roche"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ch\/116295244378554957","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39095","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39095"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39095\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39096"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39095"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39095"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39095"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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