The European Union (EU) allocated 7 billion euros to the supercomputer network in the 2021-2027 period in order to close the processing power gap between the USA and China.
The Bull facility in Angers, France, is the only factory in Europe dedicated directly to the production of machines of this nature, and the expansion of the facility aims to support this goal.
Bull's CEO, Emmanuel Le Roux, told the Reuters agency that they reached the highest order volume so far this year.
The company won 15 of 18 tenders opened by EuroHPC, the EU organization that finances the European supercomputer network together with member states, beating rivals including Hewlett Packard Enterprise.
Aviation company Airbus commissioned supercomputers manufactured by Bull in Toulouse and Hamburg this year.
It was claimed in the media that the value of the five-year agreement, which tripled the company's simulation capacity, was approximately 100 million euros.
In his statement to Reuters, Bull stated that the amount in question did not reflect the truth, but refrained from sharing the exact figure.
Cloud operator OVHcloud and European Commission-backed Domyn, along with other unnamed companies, are trying to train advanced artificial intelligence models on Bull's JUPITER supercomputer.
MONTHLY PRODUCTION INCREASED
Bull executives announced that the expansion project in Angers cost 80 million euros. The production level, which was previously six cabinets (racks) per month, increased to 12 cabinets.
The facility has the infrastructure to increase its capacity to 24 cabins per month next year if demand continues to increase.
The supercomputer ordered by France from Bull and named after computer expert Alice Recoque consists of 94 cabinets.
This system is being assembled simultaneously with LUMI-AI from Finland, which has a 388 million euro order, representing the largest contract in Bull's history.
Officials stated that before the expansion, it was impossible to produce two large orders at the same time.
France completed the acquisition of Bull from the debt-ridden IT group Atos on March 31, and the company was valued at up to 404 million euros. Le Roux noted that the main reason behind this move is strategic.
After the United States stopped supplying supercomputers to the French Nuclear Energy Commission (CEA) in the 1980s, the Paris administration turned to Bull to produce machines to simulate nuclear tests.
Bull built JUPITER, Europe's first exascale machine, representing the fastest class. The system in question operates at the Jülich research center in Germany.
EUROPE STRENGTHENING DOMESTIC PRODUCTION IN TECHNOLOGY
The Alice Recoque system, ordered for the French Nuclear Energy Commission and costing 554 million euros to the French government and the European Union, is planned to be delivered gradually from the end of this year.
factory in Angers; In addition to Nvidia, AMD and Intel processors, it also assembles with European-produced parts according to customer demand.
The share of European origin parts in the machines produced has increased from 20-30 percent five years ago to 70 percent.
Within the scope of the partnership signed in June, Bull and Taiwan-based Foxconn will produce Nvidia's NVL systems at the factory in Czech Republic, and the final assembly process will be completed at the facility in Angers.
