German neural network-based translation company DeepL has deployed a 5.1 petaflop high performance computing system at Verne Global’s data center campus in Iceland.

The site, set on a former NATO base, is powered by renewable energy from hydroelectric and geothermal sources.

Cheap and clean energy

verne global Keflavik iceland
Verne Global, Iceland – Verne Global

“For DeepL, we needed a data center optimized for high-performance computing environments and determined that our needs could not be met in Germany,” Jaroslaw Kutylowski, CTO of DeepL, said.

“Verne Global’s Icelandic campus provides us with the scalability, flexibility and technical resources we need. In addition, the abundance of low-cost renewable energy and free cooling will allow us to train DeepL’s neural networks at lower cost and faster scalability.”

Tate Cantrell, CTO of Verne Global, added: “We are pleased that our HPC-optimized campus was the ideal location for DeepL’s supercomputer. Our location in Iceland provides a low and stable energy price with the highest possible availability and scalability – criteria that are indispensable for computational and power-intensive applications.

“We are seeing growing interest from companies using AI tools, such as deep neural network (DNN) applications, to revolutionize how they move their businesses forward, create change, and elevate how we work, live and communicate.”

Verne Global’s Keflavik campus, originally built out of Colt Modular Data Centers, is also home to monitored cloud services company GreenQloud, managed hosting provider Datapipe (soon to be part of Rackspace), and Eve Online creator CCP Games, among others.