US computing chip company Nvidia has announced its intention to invest roughly £40 million into building the UK's most powerful supercomputer, which the company claim is to be used in drug discovery and for healthcare challenges such as coronavirus.
Supercomputers
Nvidia hopes to build the machine in Cambridge, England, appropriately named "Cambridge-1," by the end of the year.
Among its first partnerships will be pharmaceutical manufacturers such as GlaxoSmithKline and AstraZeneca, gene analysis company Oxford Nanopore and researchers at Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust and King's College London.
This news comes as Nvidia is still awaiting confirmation of their $40 billion (€33 billion) purchase of Arm Holdings last month, which is potentially the largest purchase in semiconductor history.
The supercomputer could help revolutionise clinical trials in the face of the pandemic owing to their ability to analyse millions of molecules before deciding which ones will prove the most useful, which could accelerate the typically slow and costly journey for drug discovery.
Jensen Huang, Nvidia’s co-founder and chief executive, said: “The Cambridge-1 supercomputer will serve as a hub of innovation for the UK, and further the groundbreaking work being done by the nation’s researchers in critical healthcare and drug discovery."
Back in January, the first-ever drug molecule invented solely by AI was announced. The entire process took 12 months, which is a major step up fro the average four-and-a-half years the process would take manually, suggesting this could be a significant technological advancement for the sector.
In addition to Cambridge-1, Nvidia also unveiled a set of AI tools specifically designed to help with drug discovery dubbed "Nvidia Clara Discovery." The chip manufacturers claim the programme could support researchers by analysing data on a massive scale, including information on existing treatments and research literature.
In a statement, Matt Hancock, UK health secretary, said: “Accelerating drug discovery has never been so important, and it is investments like this that can make a real difference in our fight against countless diseases."
Nvidia announced that Cambridge-1 would rank 29th in the TOP500, a list of the worlds most powerful supercomputers and ranks well above the UK's current top spot. The UK as a whole has 10 supercomputers on this list, placing it fifth in Europe behind France, Germany, the Netherlands and Ireland.
The company also announced the supercomputer would become part of a planned "AI Centre of Excellence" in Cambridge alongside another planned build which they hope will emerge from their partnership with Arm.
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