Tenerife Launches Great Atlantic Supercomputing Center to Boost Tech Innovation
The Canary Islands have launched the Great Atlantic Supercomputing Center in Tenerife, a 5.5 million euro public-private partnership designed to accelerate scientific research and establish the region as a leading technological hub.
The Canary Islands are taking a major step toward technological independence with the launch of the Great Atlantic Supercomputing Center. According to the Tenerife Island Council, this new facility will make the island the fifth most powerful computing hub in Spain. The project is a public-private partnership between the Technological and Renewable Energy Institute (ITER) and the German company Bechtle.
The project is starting with an initial investment of 5.5 million euros, with plans to reach 10 million in the future. The goal is to drastically speed up complex scientific research, cutting processing times from months down to just hours. Technically, the center uses a hybrid system that combines central processing units (CPU) and graphics processing units (GPU). This setup provides a total computing power of 1.3 to 1.4 petaflops, with nearly one petaflop dedicated specifically to artificial intelligence.
Beyond the raw power, this center is designed to help diversify the island’s economy. It will triple the current storage capacity and double Tenerife’s supercomputing power, creating an innovation hub to support institutions like the University of La Laguna, the CSIC, and the Institute of Astrophysics of the Canary Islands (IAC).
The center will benefit a wide range of fields, including genomics, cybersecurity, aerospace, and the audiovisual industry. By combining supercomputing, AI, and cloud services, the Island Council hopes to keep young talent on the island and attract tech companies that need high-performance infrastructure. This initiative builds on Tenerife’s existing technical expertise—which proved vital during the pandemic for analyzing virus variants—and cements the island’s role as a key hub for connectivity and scientific research in the Atlantic.