Isambard-AI – named after Bristol’s most famous engineer – is so advanced it can process more information than the rest of Britain’s supercomputers combined
Gabriel Shepard Assistant Head of Print
18:00, 17 Jul 2025
Named after revolutionary engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel – a nod to the region’s historic contributions to engineering and innovation – Isambard-AI has been installed at the Bristol and Bath Science Park(Image: bristol university)
To the thousands of people driving along the ring road every day it could be any other warehouse. But inside Bristol and Bath Science Park’s latest addition is the UK’s most powerful supercomputer.
In fact, Isambard-AI – named after Bristol’s most famous engineer – is so advanced it can process more information than the rest of Britain’s supercomputers combined. Its makers’ claim the £225million facility, developed by the University of Bristol in close partnership with HPE and NVIDIA, is able to process in one second what it would take the entire global population 80 years to achieve.
The processing speeds offer capacity never seen before in the UK, allowing researchers and industry to harness the potential of artificial intelligence (AI) in fields such as robotics, big data, climate research and drug discovery.
Professor Simon McIntosh-Smith, director of the Bristol Centre for Supercomputing, said: “Isambard-AI places Bristol at the centre of the AI revolution, spearheading AI innovation and scientific discovery in important areas such as drug discovery and climate research. I’m incredibly proud of our team and how we’ve worked so closely with partners to develop this national facility which will establish Bristol and the UK as an international hub for AI research.”
The University of Bristol was chosen to host the new national supercomputer research facility thanks to its long history of world-leading AI research and expertise in high performance computing. Named ‘AI University of the Year’ in 2024, the university will also be training the AI pioneers of the future by offering a new fully-funded Government-backed master’s degree in artificial intelligence through the Spärck AI scholarship.
The university’s vice-chancellor Evelyn Welch said: “This is a pivotal moment for AI in the UK and the University of Bristol is proud to be at the heart of it. We have a long history of AI research, innovation and education and now we are home to the UK’s most powerful AI supercomputer.
“Together with HPE and NVIDIA, we have delivered this remarkable national facility at pace, in just under 24 months. Due to its impressive power, working at speeds 100,000 times faster than an average laptop, we will soon see Isambard AI deliver transformational research and breakthroughs that will ultimately improve people’s lives.”
Named after revolutionary engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel – a nod to the region’s historic contributions to engineering and innovation – Isambard-AI has been installed at the Bristol and Bath Science Park(Image: bristol university)
Isambard-AI, alongside the Dawn supercomputer at the University of Cambridge, will see the UK’s compute capacity increase to 23 AI ExaFLOPs – the equivalent of everyone in the UK spending 85,000 years doing what the full AI Research Resource will do in one second.
Not only is it the sixth fastest supercomputer in Europe, it is also the fourth greenest in the world according to the Green500 list. Built to be incredibly energy efficient, the facility exclusively uses zero carbon electricity.
It has been built in a low-carbon, modular data centre, installed by Oakland Construction, leading to a reduction in carbon emissions of around 72% compared to traditional build methods. It also utilises HPE’s 100% fan-less, direct liquid cooling technology to deliver up to 90% reduction in cooling power consumption. There is also potential to recycle the waste heat output for nearby homes and businesses.
Officially opening the facility yesterday, Secretary of State for Science, Innovation, and Technology, Peter Kyle said: “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. “
What will it be used for?
Researchers at the University of Bristol are using Isambard-AI to help analyse recordings from wearable cameras and other smart devices to help people perform tasks better at home – something which holds immense promise for assisting dementia patients in the future.
Videos contain far more information than images or text, but research in video understanding has been limited due to the hardware needs of handling the sheer volume of such data. This new capability of Isambard-AI is opening up new possibilities, including capturing footage directly from individuals in the early stages of dementia and training an AI model to help trigger stronger memories later on.
Other examples of research enabled by the supercomputer include using AI to analyse MRI scans – meaning cases of cancer can be identified sooner and patients can then be given personalised treatment plans; improving our understanding of over 30 key proteins involved in a number of diseases to help develop future treatments; and the monitoring and analysis of dairy cattle herds to detect changes in social behaviour which can serve as early indicators of subclinical diseases.
(Image: bristol university)Facts about the super computerIsambard-AI is the 11st fastest supercomputer in the world and ninth for public supercomputingIt is 100,000 times faster than a typical laptopIts internal network speed is 200Gbps, or 200,000Mbps, compared to the average home broadband speed of about 100Mbps, making Isambard-AI’s internal network 2,000 times fasterIt has 200,000 times more storage than the average phoneThe whole project took under two years from initial scoping to coming onlineAt 150 tonnes, it weighs the same as 25 African elephants
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