Huge expansion planned for AI supercomputer at NHR@FAU

A “red-letter day for AI in Bavaria and a milestone for science and research in Bavaria and Germany”: Bavaria’s Minister of Science Markus Blume welcomed the signing of the contract for a delivery of high-performance processors from NVIDIA, the global leader manufacturing, at the Bavarian Ministry of Science and the Arts in Munich. The Free State of Bavaria is now launching the next stage in its AI campaign: It is massively expanding computing capacities for science and research, creating the prerequisites for developing the Blue Swan platform, Bavaria’s own, trustworthy platform based on AI models with a wide range of different capabilities and applications. It is based on a new generation of high-performance processors for which the contractual framework has now been put in place. The powerful cluster – the largest AI computing infrastructure in the German higher education landscape – will be housed at the Erlangen National High-Performance Computing Center at Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (NHR@FAU).

Celebrating the signing of the contract in Munich, Science Minister Markus Blume emphasized: “With a further 1,024 AI chips from the global leader NVIDIA, Bavaria is gaining the computing power that is crucial for developing powerful AI models. We are venturing into the next major chapter in our AI story. We are proud of this strong partnership between NVIDIA and Bavaria.”

Application in the health care and robotics sectors

Blume underlined Bavaria’s bold concept: “These new GPUs are not for the sake of it, they are aimed at enabling practical AI applications. With our Blue Swan platform, we are developing an independent model for key applications such as health care and robotics, the likes of which has not yet been seen. The Blue Swan platform is capability-driven, has a multi-modal structure and follows open source principles. For this reason, we would also like to invite others to become involved.”

Rod Evans, NVIDIA vice President Supercomputing, Higher Education & AI, EMEA, explained: “Bavaria is a genuine powerhouse within Europe when it comes to AI activities. I am pleased that today we are able to seal the deal and take the next major step for the AI ecosystem and for science and research in Bavaria and Germany. Bavaria is becoming a major AI hub, building on the success of its High-Tech Agenda Bavaria, which has long since demonstrated that the Free State of Bavaria truly appreciates the progress and potential of AI. For me, that is genuinely a forward-looking approach, as the demand for computing power is constantly growing, and science and research mustn’t fall by the wayside.”

New high-performance AI processors at NHR@FAU

Signing the contract today marks a massive expansion in computing infrastructure for AI in Bavaria: As of autumn 2026, the Blue Swan development teams will exclusively be able to access the massively expanded computing capacity and advance research. The powerful cluster with the new high-performance processors from NVIDIA is taking shape at NHR@FAU under the leadership of Prof. Dr. Gerhard Wellein. Technical implementation will be carried out together with the partner Megware.

FAU President Prof. Dr. Joachim Hornegger: “Artificial intelligence is not only having a major impact on our day to day life already, it will also affect our future in a way we have never experienced before. If we want to be involved in shaping this future, if we want to set our own standards and play a role in cutting-edge international research, it is crucial that we invest in the relevant infrastructure. That is exactly what is happening with the massive sums of money the Free State of Bavaria is investing in AI – with our Erlangen National High-Performance Computing Center and the AI supercomputers it houses at the very center of these developments.”

Prof. Dr. Gerhard Wellein, Director of the Erlangen National High-Performance Computing Center stressed the importance of the collaboration between all parties:  “The new AI supercomputer is equipped with the latest NVIDIA B200 GPUs. Over recent months, its system architecture has been tailored specifically to meet the requirements of the Bavarian AI model. At the same time, we have worked together with the specialists from the company MEGWARE to optimize our overall concept concerning the requirements for resources in order to ensure that operations remain as sustainable as possible. NHR@FAU is looking forward to opening new horizons for AI research in Bavaria in partnership with the researchers involved.”

Investment of nearly 55 million euros

Science Minister Markus Blume explained: “We are connecting the best ideas of our AI researchers with the best infrastructure and are investing 54.5 million euros in this alone – more than any other federal state in Germany! In total, approximately 1,400 GPUs will be available for the new Bavarian AI model at the Erlangen National High-Performance Computing Center alone – with plans for up to 1,700 in the pipeline. The largest AI computing infrastructure at any university in Germany is being built at FAU.”

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