Alice Recoque contract signed: second European exascale system on track for 2026

Europe's second exascale supercomputer has officially left the drawing board. The EuroHPC Joint Undertaking signed a contract with Eviden to build Alice Recoque, a 355-million-euro system destined for the CEA's Très Grand Centre de Calcul in Bruyères-le-Châtel, France.

Named after the French computer scientist who pioneered early transistor-based machines, the supercomputer is the centerpiece of the AI Factory France initiative. It complements the JUPITER system in Germany, forming the twin pillars of Europe's exascale ambitions. Installation is expected to begin in 2026.

The project is co-financed by EuroHPC (50%) and the Jules Verne consortium, which includes France, the Netherlands, and Greece. Greece, for instance, is simultaneously investing in AI-powered public services through its recent deal with ElevenLabs, signaling a broader push to embed AI into civic infrastructure, as covered in our earlier report. Poland has also made a direct state investment in ElevenLabs, highlighting a European trend of governments directly backing AI companies to build domestic capability, as we noted.

The signing comes as the European Union sharpens its focus on digital sovereignty and AI regulation. The push for homegrown exascale computing is part of a strategy to reduce reliance on non-European technology, a theme explored in the shifting landscape of AI regulation. EuroHPC already operates 11 supercomputers across the continent and has launched quantum computing simulators including Jade and Ruby.

While public investment anchors Europe's HPC roadmap, private capital is also flowing into AI infrastructure at scale. Together AI recently raised $800 million to build open inference systems, a reminder that the compute race is no longer a purely government affair, as discussed in our analysis of Together AI's bet.

Alice Recoque will rank among the world's fastest machines when it comes online, marking a tangible step toward Europe's goal of achieving technological parity in high-performance computing. The countdown to 2026 has begun.