Isambard-AI: A new 5MW supercomputer optimised specifically for AI

Isambard-AI is a new, 5MW supercomputer coming online in the UK in the summer of 2025. It uses a modular data centre approach to achieve rapid deployment and very low embedded carbon. Delivered by HPE and using Nvidia's Grace-Hopper GPUs, Isambard-AI is the UK's largest supercomputer by far, with more than 10X the performance of the next system. But it's the design of the software stack that is most unique. Isambard-AI is not a traditional HPC supercomputer that has been modified to run AI. Instead, it has been designed from first principles as an AI machine. Isambard-AI employs many technologies originally developed in the cloud, and exploits open source and open standards wherever possible. In this talk we'll describe how we've delivered this supercomputer, from the first call about the idea with the UK government on August 18th 2023, to delivery of a working phase 1 system in March 2024, and from breaking ground on the main site in June 2024 to powering on of the main system just 12 months later.