A new era for the Greek digital ecosystem begins with the official launch of the "Daidalos" supercomputer. The system, scheduled for its formal inauguration on Monday, October 19, is housed in the historic former Power Station building at the NTUA Technological Cultural Park in Lavrio. With a budget of €58.9 million, the project is funded via the "Greece 2.0" program, supported by the EU’s NextGenerationEU and the EuroHPC JU joint undertaking.

Global Rankings and Technical Capabilities

Daidalos is not merely a national asset but a system of international caliber. Boasting a measured performance of 85.69 petaflops, it ranks 31st globally on the TOP500 list and 23rd on the Green500 list for energy efficiency. This computational power enables the execution of complex calculations in hours or days—tasks that previously required weeks or months on conventional systems.

The Core of the PHAROS AI Factory

The supercomputer serves as the computational heart of the Greek AI Factory, named PHAROS. This initiative places Greece among only 14 countries worldwide possessing infrastructure of this scale for developing next-generation Artificial Intelligence. According to the Minister of Digital Governance, Dimitris Papastergiou, Daidalos will act as a beacon for the AI ecosystem, offering universities, research centers, and businesses the "space and time" to train models at no cost.

Applications Across Society and Economy

The capabilities of the new system extend to several critical sectors:

  • Civil Protection: High-resolution simulations for natural disasters, such as predicting fire behavior under varying wind conditions.
  • Healthcare: Training AI models for medical imaging analysis (X-rays, CT scans) by Greek startups.
  • Linguistics: Developing language models specifically tailored to the nuances of the Greek language.
  • Industry: Creating digital twins to optimize production processes and reduce manufacturing costs.

The government's vision, as articulated by the Ministry of Digital Governance, is to transition the country from being a consumer of foreign technology to a creator of new applications. Plans are already underway for an October auction of a second powerful machine in Kozani, which will focus on running (inference) the models trained on Daidalos.