Latin America Maintains Its Presence in the TOP500 Announced at ISC High Performance 2025

During the latest edition of the ISC High Performance conference (ISC 2025), held from June 10 to 13 at the Congress Center Hamburg, the highly anticipated update of the TOP500 was unveiled. This international ranking highlights the most powerful supercomputers in the world. Latin America reaffirmed its presence on the list through the contributions of Argentina and Brazil, which continue to establish themselves as regional leaders in high-performance computing (HPC) infrastructure.

Argentina Holds Strong with Clementina XXI

Argentina retained its position in the TOP500 with the Clementina XXI supercomputer, a Lenovo-developed machine ranked 232nd. This system is installed at the Servicio Meteorológico Nacional (SMN) and is part of a national initiative to strengthen capabilities in climate forecasting and environmental modeling.

This supercomputer serves as a critical asset for climate science in the region, enabling progress in complex simulations, high-resolution weather analysis, and mitigation strategies in the face of climate change.

Brazil Expands Its Regional Leadership

Brazil, for its part, continues to strengthen its regional leadership as the Latin American country with the highest number of entries in the TOP500. In the previous list, published in November 2024, Brazil increased its total to nine classified supercomputers, adding one more system compared to the earlier edition. This growth reflects the sustained investment by Petrobras, LNCC, and various academic and industrial laboratories.

Brazilian supercomputers range from GPU-accelerated DGX H100 clusters used for AI training to petascale x86 platforms. These developments illustrate the country’s sustained efforts to modernize its computing capabilities in areas such as health, genomics, energy, materials science, artificial intelligence, and data science.

Regional Momentum Toward Technological Sovereignty

The continued presence of Argentina and the growth of Brazil in the TOP500 not only demonstrate technical progress, but also reflect a shared strategic vision: building homegrown HPC capabilities as a key tool for sovereign development in science, innovation, and data-driven decision-making.

In the broader context of ISC 2025—where topics such as artificial intelligence, data center sustainability, and global cooperation were also addressed—Latin America presented itself as a region committed to strengthening its digital infrastructure and actively participating in the global conversation on the future of advanced computing.

For more technical details see the full June 2025 TOP500 list released at ISC 2025: top500.org

SCALAC Strengthens Digital Partnerships for Latin America at ISC High Performance 2025

The German port city once again hosted ISC High Performance (ISC-HPC), Europe’s leading event on supercomputing, artificial intelligence, and advanced computing. Held from June 10 to 13 at the Congress Center Hamburg under the theme “Connecting the Dots”, the event consolidated its role as a strategic platform for global collaboration in these fields.

Since 2012, the Advanced Computing System for Latin America and the Caribbean (SCALAC) has maintained an active presence at ISC, participating over the years through specialized workshops, an exhibition booth, and, in recent editions, by taking part in high-level panel discussions.

One of the highlights of the 2025 edition was the session “HPC in Africa, Latin America & Middle East”, organized by Happy Sithole (CHPC-CSIR, South Africa). This panel focused on how different regions are leveraging the power of HPC to advance artificial intelligence, with a strong emphasis on regional digital partnerships.

The panel brought together experts from across the globe:

·       Horst Simon (Adia Lab, United Arab Emirates), who presented “HPC in the UAE: 2025 Status in AI and Advanced Computing”.

·       David Keyes (KAUST, Saudi Arabia), with “HPC in Saudi Arabia: from Petroleum to Genomics”.

·       Carlos Jaime Barrios, General Chair of SCALAC / Researcher.

·       Robert Bajadmjan (UMP6, Morocco), who discussed “Toubkal Supercomputer: Powering Morocco’s HPC Future”.

·       Segopotso Moshapo (SARAO, South Africa), with “HPC in South Africa: Host of the Square Kilometer Array Telescope”.

·       Carla Osthoff (LNCC, Brazil), who presented “HPC in Brazil and the Brazilian Artificial Intelligence Plan”.

During SCALAC’s participation, Carlos J. Barrios highlighted the alliance’s recent achievements: student competitions focused on AI, the expansion of the HPC center network across 10 Latin American countries, and the deployment of new GPU-accelerated platforms already driving projects in health, climate change, and renewable energy modeling. Barrios emphasized that “sustainable digital partnerships are key to democratizing AI in the region and ensuring scientific and technological sovereignty.”

With this participation, SCALAC continues to position itself as a key player in the global advanced computing landscape, promoting talent, innovation, and collaboration from Latin America and the Caribbean to the world.