UK Industrial Fusion Solutions Ltd (UKIFS), a subsidiary of the UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) Group, is set to receive a modular high-performance computing (HPC) data center.

In a contract award notice, UKIFS revealed it has awarded a £7.87 million ($10.6m) contract to Boxxe Ltd for the delivery of a new supercomputing facility.

According to the notice, the contract covers the “installation and delivery of a modular data center and enclosed IT infrastructure, consisting of CPU and GPU nodes.” The contract also includes long-term support and maintenance of the facility.

The contract was awarded through the Southern University Purchasing Consortium framework – High Performance Computing. Dell Technologies will provide the hardware, and selected Boxxe as its reseller.

Details of the hardware to be used have not been shared.

Boxxe describes itself as a UK provider of hardware, software, and managed IT services for both public and private sectors, and has been operating for some 35 years.

UKIFS is based at Culham Science Centre in Abingdon, Oxfordshire, likely where the modular facility will be based. Culham is also set to be one of the UK’s AI Growth Zones.

The organization is leading the STEP Fusion program, which aims to develop the UK’s first prototype fusion energy plant.

Fusion energy aims to generate electricity through the heat released by fusion reactors, but remains under development, with many not expecting a breakthrough for the next decade or longer.

Several major hyperscalers are investing in fusion energy as a potential future energy source for data centers. Back in 2023, Microsoft became the first data center company to sign a PPA with a fusion firm, inking a 50MW deal with Helion. Google’s DeepMind is currently working with CFS on the technology.