Denmark increases generative AI capabilities with new leading supercomputer at SDU

– Today marks a significant step forward for Danish research and innovation, says Centre Director Claudio Pica at the launch of Bitten, a new supercomputer and data centre, at the University of Southern Denmark in Sønderborg.

Designed and built in collaboration with Hewlett Packard Enterprise and Danfoss, the new supercomputer is named after Bitten Clausen, the wife of Danfoss founder Mads Clausen. Bitten Clausen also played a key role in Danfoss’ early development and was among the first female chairs in Danish business. The name reflects both a strong local heritage and an ambition to promote greater diversity in the tech sector.

With the launch of Bitten, Denmark significantly strengthens its position in high-performance computing (HPC) and generative AI. The system is the most capable of its kind in the country when it comes to generative AI workloads, featuring 128 advanced GPUs (NVIDIA B200), each up to 15 times more powerful than those in Gefion – another Danish AI supercomputer – that was installed in Copenhagen just two years ago.

A national platform for research and educationBitten will be operated through UCloud, the national research cloud platform developed and maintained by the SDU eScience Center, in collaboration with CLAAUDIA (AAU) and the Centre for Humanities Computing (AU). For more than a decade, UCloud has provided researchers and students across Danish universities with easy, secure and efficient access to advanced computing resources.

Today, more than 23,000 users rely on UCloud - approximately 60 percent students and 40 percent researchers. By combining the new supercomputer with the UCloud platform, SDU, along with the Danish e-Infrastructure Consortium, continues its mission to democratise access to cutting-edge technology.

– UCloud has fundamentally changed how researchers and students interact with supercomputing, says Claudio Pica.

– By making advanced infrastructure accessible through a user-friendly interface, we are enabling innovation across all disciplines, not just within science and engineering.

The platform is fully open source, supporting collaboration and shared development across institutions. This approach allows new features and improvements to benefit the entire community and strengthens partnerships both nationally and internationally.

Other European universities, such as Lund in Sweden and Bologna in Italy, are experimenting with the use of UCloud for their own local HPC systems, and Claudio Pica hopes to see more colleagues from across the continent joining the UCloud community.

More power at lower cost

As a publicly operated, non-profit solution, Bitten offers a significantly more cost-effective alternative to commercial cloud providers for Danish universities. In fact, the system is up to five times cheaper to use than commercial clouds, making advanced AI and HPC resources more accessible to the Danish research community.

– At a time when demand for computing power is rapidly increasing, it is a very smart investment, says Claudio Pica.

– We are strengthening our research capabilities while keeping costs down.

The system is designed with scalability in mind. Rather than overinvesting in capacity from the outset, Bitten is built to expand as demand grows and as newer, more efficient GPUs become available at lower cost. This ensures that resources are used efficiently and that the system remains economically sustainable over time.

While the data centre is donated by the Bitten & Mads Clausen Foundation, the supercomputer is financed by SDU and DeiC with a combined investment of more than 100 million Danish kroner over the first five years.

– So, despite being a scalable and cost-effective facility, this is already the largest investment in an AI facility by any Danish university, also thanks to DeiC, says Claudio Pica.

Built for efficiency and sustainability

Energy efficiency has been a central focus in the design of the new facility. The supercomputer uses advanced water-cooling technology developed by HPE and Danfoss, which not only improves cooling performance but also enables excess heat to be reused.

This surplus heat will be redirected to warm homes, offices and buildings in the Sønderborg area, contributing to local energy efficiency and reducing overall environmental impact.

In doing so, Sønderborg takes one step closer to reaching its ProjectZero goals - a partnership between Sønderborg Municipality and the Bitten & Mads Clausen Foundation that aims to make the local energy system carbon neutral by 2029.

In addition, the system is operated strategically to take advantage of fluctuations in energy prices, ensuring that the most energy-intensive workloads are run when electricity is cheapest and often greener.

Supporting the next generation

The launch of Bitten is not only about increasing computing power - it is also an investment in future talent. By providing students with access to state-of-the-art AI and HPC resources, SDU and its partners are helping to equip the next generation of researchers with the tools they need to tackle complex challenges.

At the same time, there is a strong focus on improving diversity within the field.

– We hope to see even more women entering computer science and AI, says Claudio Pica.

Choosing a female name for the supercomputer is a small gesture, but it reflects a broader ambition. Today, nearly 40 percent of UCloud users are female, something made possible by the easy-to-use interface of UCloud, which enables researchers and students from fields outside IT and technical disciplines to use supercomputers, thus creating a much more diverse user base.

– We already have a strong gender balance, but we want to build on that and increase diversity even more, says Claudio Pica.

Strengthening European data sovereignty

The new supercomputer also plays a role in a broader European agenda around data sovereignty.

As many universities and organisations rely on commercial cloud providers operated by non-European companies, concerns have been raised about data access and control under foreign legislation.

– Sovereignty is about independence. With publicly funded infrastructure and an open-source platform like UCloud, we can ensure that European researchers retain control over their data, says Claudio Pica.

He emphasised that while transitioning away from commercial platforms can be challenging, investments in national and European HPC solutions are essential for long-term security and autonomy.

A system ready to grow

At launch, Bitten will operate at about 30 percent of the capacity of the new data centre. As demand is projected to rise quickly, Bitten is expected to grow significantly as more researchers and students adopt the platform.

With its combination of cutting-edge performance, cost efficiency, sustainability and accessibility, Bitten represents a major step forward for Danish research infrastructure.

And perhaps more importantly, it lays the foundation for a future where advanced computing and data sovereignty is not limited to a few, but available to the many.