The European supercomputer MareNostrum 5, one of the most powerful machines in global scientific computing, began operating last December at the Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC-CNS). This latest titan of digital processing marked a milestone, boosting the processing capacity of its predecessor, MareNostrum 4, by a factor of 23 and opening a new era in high-performance computing.
A little over six months after MareNostrum 5 was unveiled amid ceremonial fanfare that highlighted Spain’s presidency of the European Council, the government now plans a planned, accelerated expansion of the system. The aim is to have additional capabilities in service well before the installation’s full, 2029 version is ready, so the upgraded module could be online as early as next year.
The move to bolster the supercomputer aligns with a fresh national artificial intelligence strategy approved by the Cabinet on Tuesday. The plan commits roughly 1.5 billion euros for this year and next, with the majority funded through European Union Recovery and Resilience Facility funds. The goal is to accelerate the pace of advancement and broaden the impact of the nation’s computational resources across sectors.
The executive intends to push the MareNostrum’s capacity up by half via a rapid upgrade, increasing from 314 petaflops to 450 petaflops. In practical terms, this means raising the machine’s peak performance from 314,000 trillion calculations per second to about 450,000 trillion, enabling a new AI-focused cluster. Even today, the MareNostrum 5 completes in one hour what a mid-to-high end laptop would take roughly 46 years to accomplish, and the pace would accelerate with the interim upgrade.
The investment for strengthening the supercomputer’s capabilities, earmarked by the Ministry for Digital Transformation, amounts to 90 million euros. The plan contemplates co-financing by the government and the European Union. A portion of the capacity is set aside for industrial applications, not solely scientific research as has traditionally been the case, signaling a broader range of practical uses for the technology.
Following the current version’s inauguration, Barcelona Supercomputing Center leadership expects MareNostrum 6 to be operational by 2029. The government intends to capitalize on Barcelona’s digital infrastructure to strengthen Spain’s and Europe’s supercomputing capabilities earlier, introducing an interim enhancement dubbed MareNostrum 5+ to bridge the gap until the full upgrade is ready.
In the global top ten
The existing MareNostrum 5, funded jointly by the European Union and a consortium led by Spain with a total investment of 202 million euros, has joined the ranks of the world’s ten most powerful supercomputers and is among the top three in Europe, a level of capability reachable only by a few systems in nations such as Finland and Italy. The machine’s performance underscores its role as a driver of ambitious scientific agendas.
The MareNostrum 5 enables researchers to tackle challenges previously deemed infeasible, spanning fields from medicine to climate science and the development of new energy sources. Its distinctive architecture supports bold visions, such as digital twins of Earth or the human body to model climate dynamics, advance personalized medicine, design healthier and more sustainable cities, and explore novel materials. The capacity to simulate complex systems at unprecedented scales opens doors to experiments and insights that can reshape scientific inquiry and industrial innovation alike.