Contract Signed to Boost MareNostrum 5’s AI Capabilities

The upgrade aligns with the goals of the BSC AI Factory, which, since April 2025, has been supporting European startups and SMEs in developing AI-ready data and accessing AI-optimised HPC resources, training, and technical expertise across key sectors, including health, climate and agriculture, finance, legal, energy, communications and media, and the public sector. With today’s contract signature to upgrade MareNostrum 5, the EuroHPC supercomputer hosted and operated by the Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC), the initiative is moving into its next phase.

​​The upgrade of MareNostrum 5 represents a step forward for European AI Factory users, transforming the system into a specialised platform for advanced AI innovation and significantly strengthening Europe’s AI supercomputing capabilities. 

The enhanced, AI-enabled MareNostrum 5 will incorporate state-of-the-art computational capabilities tailored for the most demanding AI workloads. These include:

• Next-generation GPUs optimised for large-scale machine learning;
• Accelerated hardware designed for deep learning, natural language processing, and complex simulation tasks;
• High-speed interconnects for fast data movement;
• Massive data-storage capacity;
• Energy-efficient cooling technologies to sustainably support intensive AI research and development.

Primarily designed to serve startups and SMEs for research and innovation, the upgraded system will also be accessible to the wider research community. Computing resources will be allocated jointly by EuroHPC JU and the BSC AI Factory consortium, in line with their respective investments. 

The installation of the upgraded system will start in early 2026.

More details

The consortium led by FSAS Technologies, and Telefonica has been selected following a call for tender launched in July 2025.

The BSC AI Factory, which is part of a broader network of AI Factories across Europe, will be co-funded with a total budget of around EUR 129 000 000 for the acquisition, delivery, installation and maintenance of the system. The EuroHPC JU will fund 50% of the total cost, with budget stemming from the Digital Europe Programme (DEP), while the other 50% will be funded by Spain, Portugal and Türkiye, within the BSC AI Factory consortium.

Hosted and operated by BSC in Barcelona, the BSC AI Factory is a joint initiative of Spain, Portugal, Türkiye and Romania, respectively represented by BSC, the Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT), the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Türkiye (TÜBİTAK), and the National Institute for Research and Development in Informatics (ICI București).

EuroHPC JU is currently overseeing the implementation of 19 AI factories offering free, customised support to SMEs and startups, complemented by an additional 13 AI Factory Antennas selected in October 2025 to expand the network.

About EuroHPC JU

The EuroHPC JU is a legal and funding entity that brings together the European Union and participating countries to coordinate efforts and pool resources with the objective of making Europe a world leader in supercomputing.    

To equip Europe with a cutting-edge supercomputing infrastructure, the EuroHPC JU has already procured 12 supercomputers, distributed across Europe including JUPITER in Germany, and Alice Recoque, Europe’s first exascale systems. 

European scientists and users from the public sector and industry can benefit from EuroHPC supercomputers via the EuroHPC Access Calls no matter where in Europe they are located, to advance science and support the development of a wide range of applications with industrial, scientific and societal relevance for Europe. 

Additionally, the EuroHPC JU is deploying a European Quantum Computing infrastructure, integrating diverse European quantum computing technologies with existing supercomputers. 

The EuroHPC JU also funds  research and innovation projects to develop a full European supercomputing supply chain, from processors and software to applications to be run on these supercomputers and know-how to develop strong European HPC expertise.

With the recent adoption of Council Regulation (EU) 2026/150, the EuroHPC JU’s mandate has been expanded with new action pillars dedicated to the deployment of AI Gigafactories across Europe and the advancement of quantum technologies.