Finland has offered to help South African researchers use Lumi, one of the most powerful supercomputers in Europe. The offer was made at a South Africa and Finland dialogue on artificial intelligence in Pretoria on Thursday.
The event was hosted by the Finnish embassy at the National Research Foundation (NRF). The two countries have long been friendly, but no formal AI research agreement exists between them yet, TechCentral reported.
“There is no formal collaboration agreement yet. This dialogue is to set the foundation for that,” Daan du Toit told TechCentral. He said universities in both countries were already talking.
Du Toit is deputy director-general for international cooperation and resources at the department of science, technology and innovation. He said the government was willing to put money on the table.
He wants Finland to take part in the Presidential PhD Programme. President Cyril Ramaphosa called for this programme in 2023, with an initial R1-billion to fund doctoral training at home and abroad.
Du Toit also said Finnish support in the 1990s and 2000s helped build the former Meraka Institute at the CSIR. He said that institute became the base for the CSIR’s AI skills.
Damien Le Carpentier of CSC, the IT Centre for Science, explained what Finland can offer. CSC is owned by the Finnish state and the country’s universities, and it runs Lumi.
He said CSC will host South African staff and experts for short stays. It will also offer training and exchanges for students and young researchers, and help people reach Lumi or Finnish AI experts.
CSC is also open to joint bids for European Union funding. These would go through the EuroHPC Joint Undertaking, which funds supercomputer time, and Horizon Europe, the main EU research fund.
South African researchers cannot apply for time on Lumi alone. According to Lumi’s own guidance, the lead researcher on any project must be based in the EU or a linked country. Working with European partners is the main way in.
Lumi is housed in a former paper mill in Kajaani, in eastern Finland. It has 11 912 AMD graphics chips and more than 262 000 processor cores, according to its published specifications.
The machine runs at 379.7 petaflops on the test used to rank the world’s fastest computers. It was third in the world in 2023 and was 11th as of June 2026.
Even so, it is about 95 times as powerful as the 4 petaflop machine South Africa is installing. Lumi is funded by EuroHPC and a group of 11 European countries led by Finland.
Le Carpentier said the data centre runs on 100% renewable energy. He said waste heat from the computers warms the town. “Everybody gets some share of a machine they could not have afforded alone,” he said.
He warned that buying the hardware is the easy part. A supercomputer lasts about five years, so funding must be renewed often. “You need to have the ecosystem around. Without it, your machine is pretty much useless,” he said.
Jabu Mtsweni of the CSIR said the Centre for High Performance Computing (CHPC) in Cape Town has clusters of AI chips, “although limited”.
The CHPC’s Lengau supercomputer entered the list of the world’s 500 fastest machines at 121st in 2016. It has since dropped off that list.
“The computing gap still remains,” Mtsweni said. “Sovereignty is not an event, but it is a journey.”
Mtsweni sits on the panel reviewing the national AI policy. He said the draft policy hit a snag when communications minister Solly Malatsi withdrew it, after it was found to cite fake sources. “AI adoption is outpacing policy,” Mtsweni said.
A 4 petaflop replacement for Lengau is due by March. Mtsweni said he hoped it would put South Africa back on the list of the world’s fastest computers.
Source: this article is based on reporting by TechCentral. Image: TechCentral. Written with the help of AI and published by the Tzaneen Voice Technology desk. See our Editorial Standards.
Werner Jacobs covers technology for Tzaneen Voice. Werner reports on mobile networks, data prices, internet access, smartphones, apps, AI, cybersecurity and South African tech companies. Each story explains what a new product, price change or policy means for ordinary users in South Africa.