Europe’s most powerful computer unveiled as EU seeks to keep up with AI frontrunners
The most powerful computer in Europe has been unveiled in Germany. The supercomputer, named Jupiter, has the computing power of 1 million smartphones and is intended to help the EU keep pace with the US and China in the field of AI.
Jupiter is the first European computer system to reach the exascale threshold. This means it can perform more than 1 trillion operations per second, making it the fourth fastest computer in the world. It covers an area half the size of a football field and contains some 24,000 chips from the American giant Nvidia.
The machine must be able to compete internationally in the field of AI model training. For example, it provides the computing power needed to efficiently train large advanced language models for generative AI, such as ChatGPT.
The project is part of a broader EU strategy to build a network of AI factories to serve industry, scientists and start-ups.
“The United States and China are locked in a neck-and-neck race (...) in a global economy driven by AI,” but Germany and Europe “have every opportunity” to catch up Chancellor Friedrich Merz said at the inauguration on Friday in Jülich, near Cologne.
"With Europe’s first exascale supercomputer, we are opening a new chapter for science, AI and innovation"
The EU covered half of the 500 million euro cost. “With Europe’s first exascale supercomputer, we are opening a new chapter for science, AI and innovation,” said European Commissioner for Startups, Research and Innovation Ekaterina Zaharieva in a press release.
The supercomputer will also enable much more accurate predictions of heat waves, storms and floods. According to the Commission, it is also the most energy-efficient in the world, running entirely on renewable energy.
The Jupiter supercomputer in Jülich, Germany, 5 September 2025 © PHOTO INA FASSBENDER / AFP
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