Bull wins €31 million AEMET supercomputing contract

Bull has won a €31 million contract from Spain's State Meteorological Agency, AEMET, to deliver a new supercomputing infrastructure. The four-year agreement extends a relationship between the two organisations that began in 2015.

The system will support weather, climate and environmental forecasting in Spain. Bull will supply the hardware, software and 24/7 monitoring services for the new setup.

The infrastructure will be hosted across two sites in the Madrid area. It is designed to increase performance by 10% while supporting artificial intelligence applications alongside existing forecasting workloads.

AEMET is upgrading the computing systems at the centre of its forecasting operations as meteorological agencies face growing demands for faster processing and greater accuracy. The pressure has increased as climate change contributes to more frequent and severe weather events, while AI and machine learning tools are becoming more widely used in forecasting and climate analysis.

Energy use is a central part of the contract alongside raw computing performance. The architecture will be managed through Bull's Smart Management Centre Suite, with the aim of improving the power usage effectiveness of AEMET's existing environment.

Long partnership

The award builds on more than a decade of work between the two sides. That continuity is notable in a sector where national weather agencies rely on highly reliable computing systems to process large volumes of observational data and run increasingly complex forecasting models.

Spain's meteorological service uses these systems to turn millions of daily observations into operational forecasts and climate assessments. Citizens, businesses, researchers and public authorities use these outputs, particularly when severe weather affects transport, infrastructure and emergency planning.

Alicia López Rejas, Executive Director, AEMET, described the project as a major step for the agency's operations.

“The commissioning of this new high-performance computing infrastructure represents a strategic milestone for AEMET. It will significantly enhance our meteorological and climate forecasting capabilities, foster the application of artificial intelligence, and strengthen the continuity of essential services that are critical to public safety and societal support. The collaboration with Bull is key to making this infrastructure a reality, positioning the Agency at the forefront of technological innovation among European meteorological services,” said Alicia López Rejas, Executive Director, AEMET.

Broader demand

Weather agencies across Europe have been increasing spending on computing infrastructure as forecasting models become more data-intensive. Running these systems requires balancing the need for greater processing speed with pressure to manage electricity consumption and operating costs.

For suppliers, contracts with national meteorological organisations offer a route into a stable but technically demanding market. Systems must maintain continuity for public services while handling continuous streams of data from satellites, sensors and other observational networks.

Bull employs around 3,000 people across 32 countries and reports revenue of about €720 million. The group focuses on high-performance computing, artificial intelligence and quantum technologies. The AEMET contract reflects continued demand for modernisation of public-sector research and forecasting infrastructure.

Bruno Lecointe, Head of HPC, AI and Quantum Computing, Bull, said the project brings together computing and energy considerations.

“At Bull, we believe that combining high-performance computing, artificial intelligence and energy-efficient technologies is key to helping organisations deliver increasingly accurate, resilient and sustainable services at scale. We are proud to continue our long-standing collaboration with AEMET and to support its technological transformation with a modernised infrastructure designed for both today's computing needs and tomorrow's AI-driven innovations. Behind this infrastructure, millions of weather observations are transformed every day into forecasts that help citizens, public authorities, researchers and businesses make informed decisions,” said Bruno Lecointe, Head of HPC, AI and Quantum Computing, Bull.