Greece officially inaugurated its Daedalus supercomputer in Lavrio on Monday, October 19, 2026. Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis attended the ceremony at the Lavrio Technological and Cultural Park.
The facility aims to strengthen Greece’s capacity for scientific research, large-scale data analysis and artificial intelligence development. It is designed to serve universities, research institutions, businesses and public-sector organizations.
Daedalus recorded a measured computing performance of 85.69 petaflops. This result placed it 31st in the June 2026 TOP500 ranking, which lists the world’s most powerful supercomputers.
What Daedalus Will Offer Researchers and Businesses
The National Infrastructures for Research and Technology (GRNET) manages the project under the Ministry of Digital Governance and Artificial Intelligence.
Daedalus is designed to support scientific, industrial and public-sector users in Greece and across Europe. Its potential applications include medicine, meteorology, large-scale data analysis and smart transportation systems.
The system will also provide computing power for PHAROS, Greece’s national artificial intelligence factory. Coordinated by GRNET, PHAROS aims to help researchers, startups, small and medium-sized businesses, and public bodies develop AI applications.
Its priorities include language and culture, health, and sustainability. These areas reflect the project’s intended research focus, rather than a claim that all related applications are already operational.
At the inauguration, Mitsotakis highlighted the importance of domestic AI infrastructure. He argued that Greece should strengthen its ability to develop AI applications rather than depend entirely on external providers. He also pointed to opportunities for smaller businesses to experiment with and develop their own models.
Computing Power and Energy Efficiency
Daedalus uses Hewlett Packard Enterprise architecture with NVIDIA GH200 accelerators and direct liquid cooling. In addition to its 31st-place TOP500 ranking, it placed 23rd in the June 2026 Green500 list, which ranks supercomputers by energy efficiency.
The TOP500 ranking uses the LINPACK benchmark to compare systems’ performance on demanding mathematical calculations. It provides a standardized measure of computing power, but it does not indicate how quickly every individual scientific or AI task will run.
Daedalus forms part of the EuroHPC initiative, which brings together European resources to support advanced computing. Under the project’s access arrangements, EuroHPC and the Daedalus consortium jointly manage computing resources in proportion to their investment.
Cyprus, Montenegro and North Macedonia also participate in the consortium.
A New Role for Lavrio’s Industrial Heritage
The supercomputer is housed in a data center inside the former power-station building at the Lavrio Technological and Cultural Park, a site associated with the National Technical University of Athens.
The historic building is recognized as part of Greece’s modern industrial heritage. Its new role connects the country’s industrial past with investment in advanced computing and research infrastructure.
The project receives support through Greece’s national recovery and resilience plan, Greece 2.0, with funding from the European Union’s NextGenerationEU program and the EuroHPC Joint Undertaking.
The inauguration marks an important milestone for Greece’s computing infrastructure. Its wider impact will depend on how effectively researchers, businesses and public institutions use the system to develop practical applications and advance scientific work.
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