The UK government is investing £45 million in a 1.4MW mission-focused supercomputer called Sunrise, which is set to become the world’s most powerful AI supercomputer dedicated to fusion energy. The project marks an important first step in creating the UK’s first AI Growth Zone at the UK Atomic Energy Authority’s (UKAEA) Culham Campus in Oxfordshire. Announced as part of the UK’s Fusion Strategy, Sunrise is expected to begin operating in June this year and is designed to strengthen the country’s leadership in fusion research and advanced scientific computing.
Funded by the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ), Sunrise will help tackle major fusion energy challenges, including plasma turbulence, materials development, and tritium fuel breeding. Beyond fusion, the system is also expected to support wider clean energy innovation and contribute to the UK’s broader net zero ambitions. The supercomputer will additionally enhance AI capabilities at Culham Campus and across the UK’s high-performance computing ecosystem, aligning with the government’s AI Opportunities Action Plan and AI for Science Strategy.
The Sunrise initiative brings together a major partnership involving AMD, DESNZ, the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT), Dell Technologies, Intel, UKAEA, the University of Cambridge, and WEKA. The system will deliver up to 6.76 Exaflops of AI-accelerated modelling, enabling highly detailed simulations and the creation of digital twins for complex fusion systems. This capability will allow researchers to test, refine, and improve designs in a virtual environment before moving to costly real-world experiments, helping to reduce both risk and development time.
Government and industry leaders have described Sunrise as a landmark investment in the future of UK energy, science, and skills. Officials say the project will help strengthen Britain’s position as a global leader in fusion innovation, while also supporting energy independence and creating high-skilled clean energy jobs. UKAEA highlighted that Sunrise will combine high-fidelity simulation with physics-informed AI, allowing the development of predictive digital twins that can significantly lower the cost and complexity of fusion research.
The University of Cambridge, which is working closely with UKAEA and technology partners on the project, said Sunrise builds on long-standing collaboration in advanced computing and represents a key step toward strengthening the UK’s sovereign scientific computing capability. Technology partners including AMD, Dell Technologies, Intel, and WEKA emphasized that the supercomputer will provide the advanced AI processing, storage, and high-performance computing infrastructure needed to accelerate the path from fusion research to practical application.
Sunrise will support a wide range of UK fusion programmes, including the LIBRTI (Lithium Breeding Tritium Innovation) programme, which is focused on developing tritium fuel-cycle technologies for future fusion self-sufficiency, and STEP Fusion, the UK’s flagship initiative aiming to demonstrate fusion energy in the 2040s. The project also builds on earlier collaboration announced in 2023 between Dell Technologies, Intel, the University of Cambridge, and UKAEA to use supercomputers and AI to advance prototype fusion power plant design through the Industrial Metaverse.
The new investment also follows broader government efforts to expand the UK’s scientific computing infrastructure. In January 2026, the government announced an additional £36 million investment in the Cambridge supercomputing centre to support modern AI workloads and simulation demand. Together, these investments reflect a wider strategy to turn cutting-edge research in AI and fusion into real-world technological and economic impact.
