NVIDIA announced that RIKEN, Japan's leading national research institute, is integrating NVIDIA GB200 NVL4 systems with two new supercomputers in Japan -- one built for AI for science and the other for quantum computing. The first system will deploy 1,600 NVIDIA Blackwell GPUs, using the GB200 NVL4 platform and interconnected by NVIDIA Quantum-X800 InfiniBand networking, as part of RIKEN's AI for science initiative. The system will advance research in areas such as life sciences, materials science, climate and weather forecasting, manufacturing and laboratory automations.
The second system, dedicated to quantum computing, will feature 540 NVIDIA Blackwell GPUs -- also using the GB200 NVL 4 platform and interconnected by NVIDIA Quantum -X800 InfiniBand networking -- to accelerate research in quantum algorithms, hybrid simulation and quantum-classical computing methods. The two new RIKEN systems follow the announcement in August that launched a collaboration between Fujitsu and NVIDIA to codesign a supercomputer with the development code name FugakuNEXT, the successor to the world-renowned Fugaku supercomputer. The two new GPU-accelerated supercomputers will also be used as proxy machines -- platforms for codesigning and developing various hardware, software and applications for FugakuNEXT.
The FugakuNEXT system is planned to feature FUJITSU-MONAKA-X CPUs, which can be paired with NVIDIA technologies using NVIDIA NVLink?? Fusion, new silicon enabling high-bandwidth connections between Fujitsu's CPUs and NVIDIA's architecture. FugakuNEXT is expected to deliver 100x greater application performance compared with supercomputers based on CPU or other existing systems -- and will integrate production-level quantum computers in the future.
By combining MONAKA-X and NVIDIA's latest GPUs, FugakuNEXT will help shape the future of scientific discovery through innovation in HPC, AI, quantum and their combinations. This growing partnership with RIKEN reflects Japan's commitment to innovation and NVIDIA's support in bolstering the country's computational infrastructure and capabilities in supercomputing and AI for science. Supercomputing Software Unlocks Scientific Advancements: NVIDIA is already working with RIKEN to develop floating point emulation software that taps into NVIDIA Tensor Core GPU performance for accelerating traditional scientific computing.
This technology will allow applications to harness the full power of GPUs for AI and HPC at RIKEN and supercomputing centers worldwide. RIKEN also plans to use NVIDIA CUDA-X?? -- which provides 400+ highly optimized GPU-accelerated libraries, microservices and tools -- to boost its cutting-edge HPC applications with GPU platforms, helping advance AI for science and quantum computing initiatives in Japan.
The two new supercomputers will be operational in spring 2026, while FugakuNEXT will be operational in spring 20 26, while FugakuNEXT is expected for the next-generation supercomputers.
