How supercomputing is transforming the world? A business perspective

(Leadership – Innovation – Technology) In the era of artificial intelligence and the analysis of large volumes of data, having a great capacity for calculation is essential for scientific and technological progress. Supercomputers are essential to this end. These systems are able to perform millions of calculations per second and drive development in fields ranging from medicine to space exploration.

Supercomputing is a form of high-performance computing that uses supercomputers to perform complex calculations in the shortest possible time. Unlike conventional computers, these systems have multiple processors (CPUs) organized in calculation nodes, which can add tens of thousands and work together through specialized connections,” explains IBM.

This computing power allows supercomputers to move towards what is considered to be a new computer age, as defined by Deloitte in a recent report on supercomputing. This has several advantages:

• They speed up product launch time on the market. It allows you to create digital prototypes of complex products, which helps them reach the fastest market in sectors such as pharmaceuticals, geothermal research, and other scientific fields. It has already helped scientists with challenges such as helping to develop vaccines against COVID-19 in record time, according to the World Economic Forum.
• Improves the adoption of AI and machine learning. It can process large volumes of data at high speed, and allows these technologies to work better, faster, and with more accurate results. One example of this is NVIDIA, which has developed supercomputing systems capable of providing researchers with the power to simulate and predict complex phenomena, from climate prediction to the development of new drugs.
• Analysis of big data. It facilitates the analysis of large volumes of information in sectors where it is crucial to process millions of data points simultaneously, such as finance, scientific research, and medicine. For example, it will be useful for projects such as Destination Earth, promoted by the European Commission, which seeks to create a digital twin on Earth to model climate change and simulate, with a high level of detail, phenomena such as floods and other natural disasters.
• More agile performance. Supercomputers are much faster than conventional ones because they use thousands of parallel processors. This high performance accelerates computer processes. The Capitan is the most powerful supercomputer in the world, with a capacity of 1,742 exaflops (an exaflop, which equals the ability to perform 1 trillion mathematical operations per second), and is taking physics to the limit of the imaginable. It was launched in November 2024 in the United States, and its main mission is to strengthen national security through advanced simulations.

What is supercomputing used for?

Supercomputers are necessary because more and more data is produced. According to the European Commission, by 2025, it is estimated that the world will reach 175 zettabytes (each zettabyte, equivalent to 1 billion “terabytes”), which explains why it is being invested in this technology. One example of this is LUMI, the most powerful supercomputer in Europe, which has a calculation capacity of approximately 1.5 million laptops.

As the European Commission points out, supercomputing has various applications and makes progress in many areas possible. For example, in the simulation of molecules to develop new drugs, urban and rural planning, the design of innovative materials and vehicles, or the training of large models of artificial intelligence.

It is also used to improve the treatment of diseases such as cancer. The participation of researchers from the Barcelona Supercomputer Centre (BSC-CNS) has been essential in the European INCISIVE project, which has developed AI tools and a federated data repository to facilitate the diagnosis of lung, colorectal, breast, and prostate cancer.

Benefits for the financial sector

Supercomputing plays a very important role in the financial sector in processing large volumes of data in real time. In this line, the Banco de España and the Barcelona Supercomputing Center have signed a collaboration agreement to promote the use of this technology in the financial field.

As part of this partnership, both institutions will study the feasibility of a social science research programme, which could include AI analysis applied to finance. In addition, they will explore the development of a regulatory system that allows for to evaluation of new financial technologies in a controlled environment. Supercomputing and artificial intelligence are fundamental tools to meet the great challenges of our country, including those of the financial sector, said Mateo Valero, director of the BSC-CNS, during the presentation of the initiative.

The adoption of supercomputing and HF in financial markets offers significant benefits, such as better risk management and increased liquidity, according to a report published by the International Monetary Fund (IMF). However, the presence of these technologies also poses new challenges, such as the need to monitor and strengthen security in the face of potential digital threats. Because, as with any tool, while security teams use it to strengthen defenses, cybercriminals take advantage of it to perfect their attacks.

A clear example of the importance of supercomputing in the financial sector is that investment fund managers are increasingly confident in automation: they receive recommendations for purchase and sale generated by systems that process huge volumes of data. This is just the beginning. Over the past 30 years, the power of these systems has increased tenfold every four years, a trend that will continue in the future and that will drive progress in an increasingly data-driven world.

*Text originally published in BBVA,*