Zenith, a new AI supercomputer for science, has been launched at Cambridge University.

Hosted at the university’s Ray Dolby Centre, the machine has been built by Dell and AMD. Its precise specs have not been revealed, but when funding for Zenith was announced in January, the university said it would provide a sixfold boost to its supercomputing capability.

A series of use cases has been identified for the new machine, including aiding cancer research and diagnosis, and detailed weather forecasting to aid maritime navigation in harsh environments such as the Arctic. Funding for the £36 million ($48m) supercomputer was provided by the UK government.

Those present at a launch event for Zenith learned about two other supercomputing initiatives Cambridge is undertaking with the UK government, which also launched its AI Hardware Plan this week to coincide with London Tech Week.

One is Sunrise, a supercomputer developed in partnership with the UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA), which is working to create fusion power and help the UK secure future energy independence.

The other is the Sovereign AI Innovation Lab (SAIL), a new Cambridge-led public-private initiative supported by AMD and Dell that will create real-world test environments, and “support a UK open-source AI software environment that enables researchers and innovators to build, validate and scale trusted AI tools on sovereign infrastructure across health, energy, environmental science, advanced engineering and the wider UK research and innovation ecosystem.”

Professor Deborah Prentice, vice chancellor of Cambridge University, said: “Zenith, alongside Sunrise and SAIL, transforms what the University of Cambridge can achieve. By bringing together world-leading researchers with national-scale AI computing power, Cambridge is now equipped to tackle some of the most complex challenges of our time, from cancer to climate to clean energy, and turn discovery into real-world impact.”

Guests at the Zenith launch included the UK government’s under-secretary for technology, James Frith, and AMD’s CEO Dr. Lisa Su.

Frith said: “The launch of Zenith marks a major step forward in the UK’s mission to harness AI for science. By bringing together world‑class compute, research, and industry expertise, we will unlock new discoveries in health, clean energy, and the environment, strengthening Britain’s position as a global leader in AI innovation.”

Cambridge is already home to Dawn, one of the UK’s fastest AI supercomputers. It is hosted at the university data center, and was built by Dell, working with Intel and AI cloud firm Fluidstack.

DCD visited the supercomputer in 2024.