Five Things to Watch as ISC 2026 Kicks Off in Hamburg
he International Supercomputer Conference is upon us, featuring four days of HPC education, collaboration, and community for about 3,500 attendees in the heart of Hamburg, Germany. The ISC-High Performance event shines a spotlight on the international supercomputing community, with a particular focus on the contributions of European organizations.
“In 2026, ISC will continue to connect the dots: uniting HPC, AI, quantum and cloud for groundbreaking research from engineering to life sciences, all while championing sustainability as the cornerstone of future computing power,” stated Rosa Badia, the Director of HPC software research at Barcelona Supercomputing Center in Spain and the 2026 program chair for ISC 2026.
Here are five things to watch as ISC26 kicks off at Congress Center Hamburg:
1. EU Exascale Supercomputers
In the past year, Europe has joined the ranks of the exascale supercomputer club. The continent broke into the club with JUPITER, an Eviden BullSequana XH3000 cluster that went live at Forschungszentrum Jülich in September 2025, and which is currently number four on the TOP500 list.
View between the racks of JUPITER (Image courtesy Forschungszentrum Jülich / Sascha Kreklau)
Europe looked to double its exascale count in November 2025 with the unveiling of the contract to build Alice Recoque, which will be an Eviden BullSequana XH3500 cluster that will be installed at the CEA’s Très Grand Centre de calcul du (TGCC) in Bruyères-le-Châtel, France. It’s currently slated to go live next year.
As exascale-class systems, JUPTER and Alice Recocque can tackle the biggest HPC and AI jobs in science. But there are many other big new systems going in to Europe, including LUMI in Finland, Leonardo in Italy, and MareNostrum 5 in Spain. Collectively, these supercomputers demonstrate that Europe continues to invest in the future of HPC.
Expect these two systems, as well as Europe’s other supers, to be a topic of discussion at ISC.
2. Bull’s Reemergence
Bull is poised to make a big comeback, as the legendary computer maker finalizes its separation from parent company Atos Group and becomes nationalized by the government of France again.
Bull is strategically important for France, as well as the European region as a whole. Both of the new exascale-class systems, JUPITER and Alice Recoque, are Bull designs, which demonstrates the technical capability that this company possesses.
Bull has a convoluted 95-year-history, having become a subsidiary of American firms several times (Honeywell, General Electric). The timing of Bull’s move in February looks tailor made for the newly French company to make a big splash at this ISC event.
Whether Bull will treat ISC26 as a homecoming has yet to be seen.
3. Ethical AI for Science
The United States has the Genesis Mission at the DOE level and the National Artificial Intelligence Research Resource (NAIRR) from the NSF. In Europe, the EuroHPC Joint Undertaking (JU) has its own program, called the AI for Science and Collaborative EU Projects Access. Steve Conway, an HPCwire contributor and analyst emeritus at Intersect360 Research, says what’s unique about the European approach with the AI for Science and Collaborative EU Projects Access project is the emphasis on ethical AI.
“That’s an important focus, because with AI, as with some prior transformative technologies (e.g., nuclear fission/fusion), it’s difficult for the scientific community to strike an appropriate balance between what can be done–the excitement about imminent advances–and what should be done–prudent regulation and restraint,” Conway tells HPCwire.
Ther are unavoidable risks that come from pursuing frontier AI for scientific and industrial research, Conway says. For starters, it’s not yet fully explainable and trustworthy. It’s likely that in the next five to 10, we’ll here about some type of mishap–maybe not deliberate but still bad.
“That’s why it’s a good thing that EuroHPC is focusing on ethical AI, working to ensure that AI produces maximum benefit for society and minimal harm,” Conway says. “Europe has the strictest AI regulations on the planet. Some businesses think the regulations are too strict, but this approach is in line with Europe’s strong stand on protecting data privacy and other personal digital rights. EuroHPC will be applying this ethics-aware focus as it systemically upgrades the initiative’s petascale and exascale supercomputers with powerful AI capabilities.”
4. Data Center Sovereignty
Part and parcel of the exascale push, the EuroHPC JU AI for science initiative, and the renationalization of Bull is the European drive to control its own future when it comes to exascale supercomputers and AI data centers.
The European Commission essentially mandates that participating countries practice digital sovereignty, which means avoiding storing European subject’s data in American and Asian data centers. As the AI boom stretches into its fourth year, the data center build-out is in full swing. However, thanks to the huge amount of resources they consume, the data center push is butting up against another European mandate: to pursue a transition to green energy.
These two mandates–digital sovereignty and green energy—often are at odds. The EC planned to release a major Data Centre Energy Efficiency Package at the end of May, but it was delayed into June due to disputes over nuclear power. We’ll be keeping our ear to the ground to listen for signs of any changes on this front.
5. Quantum Computing
The acceleration of quantum computing is quickly becoming a story in its own right. Where many experts expected quantum advantage would take at least a couple more years just a few months ago, many are now saying to expect this big event to occur in 2027. The good news for Europeans is that many of the promising quantum computing startups are based on the continent.
(Funtap/Shutterstock)
According to an October 2025 report from European Commison’s Joint Research Centre, nearly one-third of the world’s quantum technology companies are based in Europe, compared to only about one-quarter for the U.S. and just 5% for China.
This includes company’s like Alice & Bob (France), Quantinuum (UK), plancq (Germany), Quandela (France), and IQM Quantum Computers (Finland). HPCwire has a number of briefings with quantum computer companies this week; stay tuned for coverage.
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