Northern Data acquires NVIDIA H200 GPUs in deal with Supermicro

Northern Data Group has announced its acquisition of NVIDIA's latest H200 GPUs through a strategic partnership with Supermicro. The new hardware aims to further enhance Northern Data’s high-performance computing (HPC) solutions and augment its existing industry-leading Generative AI (GenAI) technologies.

As part of the acquisition, Northern Data will deploy a complete setup of 2032 NVIDIA H200 GPUs, integrated with BlueField-3 data processing units (DPUs) and NVIDIA Mellanox CX7 network interface cards (NICs). This configuration is set to deliver an impressive 32 petaFLOPS of performance, thanks to NVIDIA's architecture, which promises increased bandwidth and faster data storage access. This development aims to significantly propel advancements in both GenAI and HPC capabilities.

The GPUs will be housed in Northern Data’s carbon-free data centres. The utilisation of renewable energy highlights the company’s commitment to sustainability while maintaining high performance. These data centres boast a Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) ratio of less than 1.2, indicating high operational efficiency.

Aroosh Thillainathan, founder and CEO of Northern Data Group, remarked: "Our GenAI platform is constantly evolving, and we are proud to collaborate with Supermicro to be the first in Europe to offer access to NVIDIA H200 GPUs. This is testament to our commitment to continually offer industry-leading, next-generation solutions. As an Elite Partner of NVIDIA, we are proud to continue to offer cutting-edge technology, deployed in line with recommended architecture references to maximise the technology."

The procurement of H200 GPUs further reinforces Northern Data’s position as Europe’s first and largest dedicated Generative AI Cloud Service Provider (CSP). The newly formed partnership with Supermicro - known for its application-optimised total IT solutions - will see these advanced GPUs integrated into Northern Data’s cloud platform, Taiga Cloud. The deployment is scheduled for the fourth quarter of 2024, making it the first CSP in Europe to offer access to the H200 GPU hardware.

With this new infrastructure, Northern Data seeks to provide its customers with unparalleled performance in processing larger AI models and complex simulations. "This purchase of the H200 GPUs demonstrates Northern Data Group's commitment to offering the best-in-class technology to its customers as it continues to expand its cloud solutions offering," stated a company spokesperson. The focus remains on delivering state-of-the-art technology to enhance customer experience and operational efficiencies.

Vik Malyala, President & Managing Director, EMEA; Senior Vice President, Technology & AI of Supermicro, commented: "We are excited to collaborate with Northern Data Group to expand its GenAI Cloud offering to include Supermicro GPU servers based on the latest Nvidia H200 HGX GPUs. Supermicro is fully committed to delivering the most performant and energy-efficient AI infrastructure and solutions, and this collaboration will accelerate availability and bring the best value for customers in Europe."

This strategic move underscores Northern Data’s ongoing commitment to innovation and excellence in high-performance computing. By integrating NVIDIA's advanced GPUs into its infrastructure, the company aims to stay at the forefront of AI and HPC advancements, continuously providing next-generation solutions to its customers.