The owner of Novo Nordisk, the drugmaker that gave the world Ozempic and Wegovy, is funding a new supercomputer powered by Nvidia’s artificial intelligence technology with a key aim of discovering new medicines and treatments.
The Novo Nordisk Foundation has awarded France’s Eviden a contract to build what the computing company says will be one of the world’s most powerful supercomputers, able to process vast amounts of data using AI.
It should provide “unprecedented potential to accelerate groundbreaking scientific discoveries in areas such as drug discovery, disease diagnosis and treatment,” Cédric Bourrasset, Eviden’s head of quantum computing, said in a statement.
The supercomputer is expected to be ready for pilot projects before the end of the year and will be housed in Denmark’s national center for AI innovation.
Named Gefion, the supercomputer will be available for use by researchers from Denmark’s public and private sectors, and will enjoy the backing of two of the hottest companies in the United States and Europe.
Nvidia is now one of the largest companies on the US stock market, valued at $2.21 trillion. The new supercomputer will use Nvidia’s latest chip technology.
The foundation, meanwhile, has a controlling stake in Novo Nordisk (NVO), a company worth more than Tesla. Its business is booming thanks to the widespread use of its diabetes drug Ozempic for weight loss and the popularity of Wegovy, which contains the same active ingredient as Ozempic.
AI’s potential to speed up scientific research was highlighted earlier this year when Microsoft (MSFT) said that a new battery material had been found “in a matter of weeks, not years.”
The Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, part of the US Department of Energy, used a Microsoft system that includes AI models and high-performance computing to winnow 32 million potential inorganic materials to 18 promising candidates in less than four days, Microsoft said in January.
Writing about its collaboration with Microsoft, the PNNL said on its website: “The entire process, from receiving the simulated candidates through producing a functioning battery, took less than nine months, a blink of an eye compared with traditional methods.”
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