What happens when the drug more discussed of the moment meets the most powerful artificial intelligence? It happens that it is born Gefion, a supercomputer the size of a basketball court that promises to transform Danish pharmaceutical research. Let's take a look at this tech giant behind which there is a surprising partnership between two giants: Nvidia e New Nordisk.
An unexpected leader
Nadia Carlsten She didn't know what to expect when she decided to move halfway around the world to run a company in a country she'd never lived in. But the 41-year-old American engineer, with a Ph.D. Berkeley and experiences in companies such as Amazon e Google, suddenly found herself at the center of attention.
“I feel like the most popular person wherever I go,” says Carlsten. “I just start a conversation by saying: I have more than 1.500 GPUs – and everyone wants to talk to me.” To be precise, There are 1.528 of the most powerful graphics processing units on the planet, which he now runs as CEO of the Danish Center for AI Innovation.
Last week, during the inauguration ceremony, Carlsten she found herself on stage between two "kings": on one side Frederick X, king of Denmark, on the other Jensen Huang, the king of AI and CEO of Nvidia. A symbolic moment that marked the start of a one-of-a-kind project: more VIP than this.
The Power of Gefion for Pharmaceutical Research
The name Gefion comes from Norse mythology: she was the goddess who transformed her sons into oxen to plow the land on what would become Denmark's largest island. An apt metaphor for a supercomputer that promises to transform Denmark's innovation landscape.
As stated Huang during the inauguration:
Over time, you will discover that it is not a data center. It is an intelligence factory.
The dimensions of innovation
Gefion's numbers are impressive: as mentioned, it occupies a space larger than a basketball court, weighs over 30 tons and took six months to produce and install. The $100 million investment was made possible thanks to a public-private initiative between the Novo Nordisk Foundation andExport and Investment Fund of Denmark.
The role of Ozempic
At the beginning of this article I mentioned the not so “hidden” financier of this operation. Novo Nordisk Foundation, which owns more than 25% of Novo Nordisk shares, has seen its assets grow exponentially thanks to the success of drugs such as ozempic e wegovy. In just five years, the demand for these drugs has boomed allowed the foundation to double its annual investments.
Denmark benefits from this. Huang talks about “sovereign AI,” noting how more and more countries are realizing that “data is their natural and national resource.” Gefion represents the infrastructure needed to transform this data into AI and boost the Danish economy.
Nvidia’s advanced chips have become the most valuable resource of our time, so expensive and rare that most researchers can’t afford them. The investment in Gefion aims to break this barrier, making this computing power accessible to Danish companies and researchers.
The Future of Pharmaceutical Research
Mads Krogsgaard Thomsen, CEO of Novo Nordisk Foundation and former chief scientific officer of Novo Nordisk, sees Gefion as the realization of a decades-long dream. For years, researchers have been limited by the sheer computing power available. Now, with Gefion, can process unimaginable amounts of data in the hopes of improving people's health.
When fully operational, the supercomputer will be available to entrepreneurs, academics and scientists, including (really?) those at Novo Nordisk. The company will be able to use it for drug discovery, protein design and digital biology, potentially accelerating the development of new therapies.
National transformation
Gefion is more than just a supercomputer: it is a symbol of Denmark's digital transformation and commitment to innovation. Like the Norse goddess it is named after, this project aims to transform the country's R&D landscape, opening up new avenues for pharmaceutical and technology innovation.
The success of products like Ozempic is not only changing the lives of patients, it is also funding the future of innovation. Through “super brains” like Gefion, today’s profits are reinvested in tomorrow’s discoveries, creating a virtuous cycle of scientific and technological progress that could transform entire nations.
