Petaflops may not mean much to most Hongkongers, but the odd word to describe computing power helps explain why the city’s first artificial intelligence (AI) supercomputing service has the attention of people developing tomorrow’s technology. Companies working on health solutions and deep learning are among those benefiting from the commercial high-performance computing service at Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corporation.
Secretary for Innovation, Technology and Industry Sun Dong has hailed the service as an important enhancement of the city’s supply of AI-related computing power. The supercomputer infrastructure is located at Tseung Kwan O InnoPark and uses US chip giant Nvidia’s data centre server system to accelerate high-performance tasks such as AI model training.
By early 2026, the centre aims to offer computer speeds near 3,000 petaflops – enough to process nearly 10 billion images an hour. One petaflop can handle 1 quadrillion operations per second.
A trial run of the system involving four firms started early last month and soon its full launch will open the project to paying customers. It is expected to support the growth of some 300 companies working on AI and data technology with what developers describe as “top-notch computing, AI models and big data”.
Projects will be able to be completed as much as nine times faster, with cost savings of up to 75 per cent. Science Park chairman Sunny Chai Ngai-chiu said the “unprecedented pace” of AI development had come with an increasing demand for high-quality solutions.
