Tech foundation of future industries

In the era of artificial intelligence, computing power has become a strategic asset, and the National Supercomputer Center in Guangzhou is seizing the opportunity to expand its application horizons.

Among the world's five most influential supercomputing centers, the Guangzhou institution has opened a new application domain in light of the AI industry's rapid growth, to support the development of large AI models.

The facility's powerful computer simulation has helped fuel the upgrading of traditional industries. It has been used to improve the development of new cars and ships; test the structure of high-performance manufacturing materials and new biomedical drugs; and explore the most efficient ways to utilize wind and solar power.

An associate professor at Sun Yat-sen University, which manages the center, Huang Dan, who is conducting research on highperformance computing, connects the surging demand for computing power to the transformation of enterprises.

Such changes include the shift from component assembly to comprehensive self-design and development, enhanced involvement in mid- to high-end manufacturing, and the trend toward intelligent systems.

Huang foresees that multimodal large models, autonomous driving, embodied intelligence, manufacturing upgrades, and nuclear energy utilization will generate substantial computing demand, which the center will focus on developing.

To better align with local industries, the institution is continuously expanding its branches. Its subcenters now cover most cities in the Greater Bay Area, leveraging the "super brain" to inject digital momentum into key local industries.