Eli Lilly and Nvidia to Build Pharma’s Largest AI Supercomputer for Drug Discovery

Eli Lilly and Nvidia have announced a partnership to develop the most powerful supercomputer operated by a pharmaceutical company, designed specifically to accelerate drug discovery and development using artificial intelligence and high-performance computing135.

The AI supercomputer, powered by over 1,000 Nvidia Blackwell Ultra GPUs, will help drastically reduce the time needed for drug discovery, enable breakthroughs in genomics and personalized medicine, and support large-scale molecular design2.

Lilly plans to leverage the new system not only to identify promising molecules more efficiently but also to enhance clinical trials, manufacturing, commercial operations, and the speed at which drugs go from lab to market15.

The supercomputer will run biomedical foundation and frontier models, some of which will be available to third parties via Lilly's TuneLab AI platform; the platform will also utilize Nvidia's Clara foundation models for healthcare applications2.

The system is already being installed at Lilly’s Indianapolis data center and is expected to be fully operational by January15.

While many in the industry are excited by AI’s potential, some experts note that its impact on actual new drug approvals remains limited so far, with greater early success in trial design and data analysis than in discovering entirely new molecules1.

Sources:

1. https://cryptorank.io/news/feed/d019c-eli-lilly-partners-with-nvidia-to-build-pharma-industrys-most-powerful-ai-supercomputer

2. https://www.aol.com/articles/nvidia-says-eli-lilly-purchase-183013564.html

3. https://blockchain.news/flashnews/eli-lilly-lly-and-nvidia-nvda-announce-partnership-to-build-pharma-s-most-powerful-ai-supercomputer-for-drug-discovery-in-2025

5. https://www.euroinvestor.dk/nyheder/eli-lilly-partners-with-nvidia-to-build-ai-supercomputer-for-drug