Jean Zay 4: France’s AI Superpower Gets a Major Upgrade
France has taken a bold leap forward in artificial intelligence with the expansion of the Jean Zay supercomputer — a cornerstone of the country’s scientific and technological infrastructure. Officially inaugurated on May 13, 2025, the fourth extension of Jean Zay has quadrupled its computing capacity, positioning it as one of the most powerful and eco-efficient supercomputers in Europe.
Supercharged for AI
With its performance now reaching a staggering 125.9 petaflops (that’s 125.9 million billion operations per second), Jean Zay 4 dramatically boosts the computational power available to France’s AI ecosystem. Operated by the Institute for Development and Resources in Intensive Scientific Computing (IDRIS) and acquired by GENCI, the system is built by Eviden, a European tech firm under the Atos group.
This upgrade isn’t just about raw speed. Jean Zay 4 was designed with AI at its core. Its enhanced power specifically targets the development and training of foundation models for language processing, biomedical research, climate modeling, and autonomous systems — all critical to the next wave of AI innovation.
Free Power for Open Research
Perhaps most impressively, Jean Zay’s power is available free of charge for open research. Thousands of academic, industrial, and startup-led projects across diverse domains — from astronomy and physics to agriculture and cultural studies — are set to benefit.
This open-access policy has led to exponential growth in usage: from just 72 AI projects in 2019 to over 1,400 by 2024. And with Jean Zay 4’s enhanced capabilities, that number is only expected to climb.
Projects on the Frontier
Three standout projects presented at the inauguration highlight Jean Zay’s breadth of impact:
- Polymathic (CNRS) – Led by astrophysicist François Lanusse, this project leverages deep learning and generative AI to analyze astronomical data at unprecedented scales.
- Owkin – A startup using AI to improve disease detection, particularly by separating semantic content from texture in microscopy images for more generalizable diagnostic models.
- Pleias – Focused on large language models (LLMs), Pleias has developed a platform that supports offline AI inference with transparent source traceability — a feature aligned with the upcoming EU AI Act.
Green Tech at Scale
Despite its massive computing power, Jean Zay 4 doesn’t compromise on sustainability. The system is cooled using next-generation warm-water technology, and its NVIDIA GPUs deliver high performance per watt. Surplus heat is even reused to warm 1,500 homes near its facility on the Plateau de Saclay — a clear nod to France’s commitment to green innovation.
A Backbone for AI Sovereignty
Jean Zay isn’t just a national asset — it’s a strategic pillar in Europe’s digital sovereignty. It will play a central role in AI Factory France, a pan-European initiative bringing together key institutions like Inria, CEA, CNRS, French Tech, and Station-F. This platform aims to provide computing resources, expertise, and training to support the continent’s AI talent and infrastructure.
As Philippe Lavocat, CEO of GENCI, put it during the inauguration:
“The extension of Jean Zay 4 will provide new energy to all academic and industrial researchers… with a view to meeting major scientific and societal challenges, notably with the help of generative AI models.”
Where Science Meets Art
In a creative flourish, the physical design of Jean Zay 4 was completed by Obvious, a French art collective known for its AI-generated artworks. It’s a poetic nod to the convergence of technology, science, and culture — all of which Jean Zay is helping to advance.
Looking Ahead
With Jean Zay 4, France has made a clear statement: it intends to be a leader not just in AI research, but in building the infrastructure and ecosystems that power it. As AI continues to evolve, so too does the importance of shared, sovereign, and sustainable computational power — and Jean Zay is at the heart of that mission.
