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UK unveils its AI supercomputer: Isambard-AI
The UK has entered the AI supercomputer age with Isambard-AI, unveiled today at an official ceremony at the University of Bristol. Built by HPE, and powered by 5,448 Nvidia Grace Hopper superchips, it becomes the 11th fastest supercomputer in the world and the fourth most power-efficient.
Secretary of State for Science, Innovation, and Technology, Peter Kyle said: “Today we put the most powerful computer system in the country into the hands of British researchers and entrepreneurs. Isambard-AI doesn’t just close the gap with our international competitors – it propels the UK to the forefront of AI discovery.”
He added: “With our AI Research Resource now fully up and running, the UK is home to the raw computational horsepower that will save lives, create jobs, and help us reach net zero ambitions faster.”
Isambard-AI is formed of 12 cabinets, each of which includes 440 powerful Nvidia GPUs. Standing next to one of the cabinets, Professor Simon McIntosh-Smith, Director of the Bristol Centre for Supercomputing (BriCS), said: “This one cabinet is about as powerful as the next fastest supercomputer in the country. So a huge step forward for the UK.”
Costing £225 million to build, the UK Government is picking up the bill for Isambard-AI, along with £75 million of running costs over the next five years. In return, it hopes to give UK researchers and businesses a platform that will enable breakthroughs in science, medicine and work.
The University of Bristol will host the Isambard-AI, which was built and run by BriCS. The university’s researchers will use 5% of the supercomputer’s capacity, with the rest shared among other researchers and British businesses.
Partnership of equals
The Isambard-AI has many parents, but in terms of technology it boils down to a partnership between HPE and Nvidia. Why those two, aside from the fact they are the dominant names in today’s AI supercomputers?
“We ran a really quick procurement, but we wanted to build the best machine we could, as fast as we could,” said Professor McIntosh-Smith. “And the answer we got… was the best offering from HP with the best technology from Nvidia.”
Speed is of the essence explained David Hogan, VP Enterprise EMEA at Nvidia. “The race is evolving very, very rapidly, and this is the most transformative wave of technology that I’ve seen in my 30+ years in the industry.”
He added: “And it’s very important that the UK is in a position to keep up with that capability, not for some niche but for the broad capability across UK industry and business in general.”
How Isambard-AI fits into the UK’s strategy
The UK Government, whether Labour or Conservative, is putting a lot of emphasis on Britain’s AI capability. In terms of compute capacity, the country has fallen behind its peers despite its heritage.
“The UK Government’s ambition by 2030 is to have a minimum of 100,000 GPUs available to the market,” said McIntosh-Smith. “If you’re [an] astronomer, you need a telescope. If you’re a data scientist, you need a supercomputer. It’s very simple. You can’t do the work [without it].”
Government minister Peter Kyle had an even more positive spin.
“This is our Plan for Change in action, building the compute infrastructure that makes Britain a magnet for the world’s brightest minds and boldest ideas,” he said.
“The breakthroughs delivered by the AI Research Resource will define the next decade, from AI tools that spot cancer earlier, to materials that help make clean energy cheaper than fossil fuels.”
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