Construction of £750m supercomputer capable of one billion calculations per second begins in Edinburgh

Construction of the UK’s most powerful computer, which costs £750m, has begun in the Scottish capital.

The UK Research and Innovation project will be hosted at the University of Edinburgh in what experts are hailing as a milestone moment.

Westminster invested up to £750m in a bid to support the machine, which is expected to deliver up to a billion calculations per second.

The new system will be around 50 times more powerful than the UK’s current national supercomputer, Archer2, carrying out complex calculations in hours rather than days.

ARCHER2, which is also housed at the University of Edinburgh, helped with Covid-19 drug discovery, empowered firms like Rolls-Royce to improve aircraft engine efficiency and sustainability, and has enabled engineers to make wind farms more efficient.

A recent independent report found that ARCHER2 delivered more than £4.2bn in benefits to the UK economy, with the new supercomputer believed to be “critical to driving economic growth”.

The supercomputer will be located in Scotland due to the cooler air, which can help with cooling the system.

Construction work on the building, which is around the size of a supermarket, is being carried out by Robertson Construction Central East.

UK AI minister Kanishka Narayan said: “Today’s milestone in Edinburgh marks a decisive step in delivering our Compute Roadmap – building the sovereign computing power Britain needs to stay in control of its future in AI and science.

“For decades, Edinburgh has been at the heart of world-leading supercomputing. This new machine takes that further – making sure UK researchers, businesses and innovators have the cutting-edge power they need here in the UK, rather than relying on others.

“This is what will unlock the next generation of breakthroughs – from training more powerful AI systems to accelerating scientific discovery and creating new products and high-growth businesses. It is our Industrial Strategy in action, turning British ideas into the jobs and industries of the future.”