--- title: A Finnish supercomputer could help close South Africa’s... description: Finland has offered to help South African researchers gain access to its Lumi supercomputer, one of Europe's most powerful machines. The offer came at a South... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/a-finnish-supercomputer-could-help-close-south-africa-s-ai-computing-gap-muglvtl3n twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: A Finnish supercomputer could help close South Africa’s AI computing gap | daily.dev og:description: Finland has offered to help South African researchers gain access to its Lumi supercomputer, one of Europe's most powerful machines. The offer came at a South... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/a-finnish-supercomputer-could-help-close-south-africa-s-ai-computing-gap-muglvtl3n og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/muGlVtL3n.png og:image:alt: A Finnish supercomputer could help close South Africa’s AI computing gap og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # A Finnish supercomputer could help close South Africa’s AI computing gap **[TechCentral](https://daily.dev/sources/techcentral)** · 5 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary Finland has offered to help South African researchers gain access to its Lumi supercomputer, one of Europe's most powerful machines. The offer came at a South Africa-Finland AI dialogue in Pretoria, though no formal research agreement exists yet. Lumi runs 11,912 AMD Instinct MI250X GPUs and sustains 379.7 petaflops, and was the world's third-fastest machine in 2023 before newer systems pushed it down to 11th as of June 2026. South African researchers can't apply for Lumi time directly; a principal investigator based in the EU or a country associated with its research programmes is required. South Africa's own CHPC is installing a 4 petaflop replacement for its Lengau supercomputer, about 95 times weaker than Lumi, due by March. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### How powerful is the Lumi supercomputer in Finland and how can researchers get access? Lumi is an HPE Cray EX system with a GPU partition of 2,978 nodes, each with a 64-core AMD processor and four AMD Instinct MI250X GPUs, totaling 11,912 GPUs, plus over 262,000 AMD Epyc cores for conventional workloads. It sustains 379.7 petaflops on Linpack against a 531.5 petaflop peak. Researchers outside the EU cannot apply directly; the principal investigator must be based in the EU or an associated research program country. _Anyone weighing access to shared European compute for AI workloads can track HPC policy shifts like this on daily.dev._ ### How does South Africa's CHPC Lengau supercomputer replacement compare to Europe's Lumi supercomputer? The CHPC's incoming replacement for Lengau delivers about 4 petaflops, roughly 95 times less powerful than Lumi's 379.7 petaflops. The new machine, able to perform about four quadrillion calculations per second, is due by March and is intended to help South Africa regain a spot on the world's top 500 supercomputer list, which Lengau dropped off after ranking 121st in 2016. _Engineers tracking the global AI compute gap can follow developments like South Africa's HPC upgrade on daily.dev._ ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Europe has ordered a €388M AI supercomputer from its own state-owned champion](https://daily.dev/posts/europe-has-ordered-a-388m-ai-supercomputer-from-its-own-state-owned-champion-9ncfkkxvi) · The Next Web · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [A petaflop on a desk – rethinking AI infrastructure for South Africa](https://daily.dev/posts/a-petaflop-on-a-desk-rethinking-ai-infrastructure-for-south-africa-jcqgkfi5k) · TechCentral · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [IQM to Deliver Quantum Computer for Europe’s LUMI AI Factory](https://daily.dev/posts/iqm-to-deliver-quantum-computer-for-europe-s-lumi-ai-factory-gv52cplgb) · The Quantum Insider · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [UK splurges £45M on AI supercomputer to crack fusion power](https://daily.dev/posts/uk-splurges-45m-on-ai-supercomputer-to-crack-fusion-power-yltj7lhpj) · The Register · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#gpu](https://daily.dev/tags/gpu), [#ai-infrastructure](https://daily.dev/tags/ai-infrastructure) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/a-finnish-supercomputer-could-help-close-south-africa-s-ai-computing-gap-muglvtl3n) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"A Finnish supercomputer could help close South Africa’s AI computing gap","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/a-finnish-supercomputer-could-help-close-south-africa-s-ai-computing-gap-muglvtl3n","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/a-finnish-supercomputer-could-help-close-south-africa-s-ai-computing-gap-muglvtl3n"},"datePublished":"2026-10-29T11:26:28.419Z","dateModified":"2026-10-29T11:26:58.861Z","description":"Finland has offered to help South African researchers gain access to its Lumi supercomputer, one of Europe's most powerful machines. 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It sustains 379.7 petaflops on Linpack against a 531.5 petaflop peak. Researchers outside the EU cannot apply directly; the principal investigator must be based in the EU or an associated research program country. Anyone weighing access to shared European compute for AI workloads can track HPC policy shifts like this on daily.dev."}},{"@type":"Question","name":"How does South Africa's CHPC Lengau supercomputer replacement compare to Europe's Lumi supercomputer?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"The CHPC's incoming replacement for Lengau delivers about 4 petaflops, roughly 95 times less powerful than Lumi's 379.7 petaflops. The new machine, able to perform about four quadrillion calculations per second, is due by March and is intended to help South Africa regain a spot on the world's top 500 supercomputer list, which Lengau dropped off after ranking 121st in 2016. Engineers tracking the global AI compute gap can follow developments like South Africa's HPC upgrade on daily.dev."}}]} ```