French cloud company Scaleway acquires HPC provider Qarnot

The acquisition strengthens the Iliad Group-backed Scaleway’s position as a cloud provider.

Cloud company Scaleway is acquiring high-performance computing (HPC) provider Qarnot to address growing cloud demand from businesses. Details of the transaction were not disclosed.

The acquisition strengthens Scaleway’s position as a cloud provider with HPC capabilities, enabling businesses to benefit from higher speeds and better AI performance. Scaleway and Qarnot are both headquartered in France.

Qarnot’s systems are able to recover or redirect up to 95pc of the heat produced by HPC servers into community services such as district heating networks, public facilities and industrial sites, without affecting computing performance, the company said.

Being significant electricity consumers, HPC systems produce excessive waste heat and require elaborate cooling mechanisms.

Qarnot’s model is already deployed in cities including Brescia, Italy, where the company partnered with A2A last June to connect its HPC infrastructure to the city’s district heating network.

The €2.8m EU-funded project is expected to become operational next March and would support avoiding nearly 23,000 tonnes of CO2 equivalent greenhouse gas emissions.

Qarnot’s customers include European space-tech company MaiaSpace, sports car manufacturer Alpine Racing and wealth manager Natixis.

For Scaleway, backed by the Iliad Group, the acquisition also strengthens its ability to control the heat and emissions it generates, and support it in developing next-generation AI applications.

“The next frontier isn’t just more efficient compute. It’s making sure the energy we can’t avoid consuming creates value twice,” said Damien Lucas, the CEO of Scaleway.

“Tomorrow’s cloud platforms won’t only be measured by the performance they deliver, but by how intelligently they use the energy they consume. Qarnot’s expertise in waste heat recovery helps us move towards that future.”

Qarnot’s chief technology officer Clément Pellegrini said, “Joining Scaleway gives Qarnot the backing of a major European cloud provider and the Iliad Group.

“It gives us the scale, investment capacity and European reach to bring our HPC expertise to more organisations while continuing to build on the principles that shaped Qarnot from the beginning.”

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