Equinix,, recognized globally as the world’s premier digital infrastructure company®, announced today that Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany—a leading science and technology innovator—has officially deployed a next-generation high-performance computing (HPC) system hosted within an Equinix AI-ready data center in Germany. Built on Lenovo ThinkSystem servers featuring industry-leading liquid-cooling technology, this advanced supercomputing platform is designed to significantly accelerate innovation across Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany’s three major business sectors: Life Science, Healthcare, and Electronics. The initiative reflects the company’s ongoing commitment to integrating modern digital capabilities as core drivers of scientific advancement and competitive differentiation.
For Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, the launch of this HPC platform represents a transformational leap in how the company approaches data-driven research. Today’s scientific challenges—from discovering new therapeutics to designing next-generation semiconductor materials—require a powerful computing ecosystem able to process immense datasets at high speed. By partnering with Lenovo and Equinix, the company has developed an infrastructure that not only meets today’s needs but positions it for long-term innovation and scalability.
“At Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, we believe that data and technology are the cornerstones of scientific progress. With this high-performance computer, we are enhancing our computational capabilities and transforming how we conduct research and develop solutions that matter,” said Laura Matz, Chief Science and Technology Officer at the company. “This platform empowers our teams to leverage AI and advanced analytics more effectively, ultimately accelerating the pace of innovation across our sectors.”
The HPC solution was engineered by Lenovo and enabled through Equinix’s specialized hosting and interconnection capabilities. One of the defining features of the platform is its hybrid cloud architecture, which blends private and public cloud environments into a cohesive computational framework. This hybrid approach allows Merck’s teams to dynamically scale computing resources depending on the workload—an essential capability in research and industrial settings where data demands can fluctuate sharply.
By harnessing the combined power of high-performance computing and flexible cloud integration, Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany plans to drive transformative outcomes within its diverse portfolio. In the Life Science sector, the system will support complex simulations and modeling for new product development, helping researchers analyze biological processes with greater speed and accuracy. In the Healthcare sector, the HPC will accelerate drug discovery pipelines by enabling the rapid screening and analysis of molecular structures, shortening the path from concept to potential therapeutic candidate. In the Electronics sector, which serves the semiconductor industry, the HPC will aid in modeling, designing, and testing highly advanced materials that support next-generation chip manufacturing.
This unified digital foundation ensures that scientific and engineering teams across the company can work from consistent data models and have access to the same high-performance resources. The result is less fragmentation, improved collaboration, and more precise targeting of research challenges.
At Lenovo, enabling high-efficiency computing at scale is a strategic priority—particularly as organizations worldwide aim to reduce environmental impacts while expanding their use of AI and data-intensive workloads. “At Lenovo, we are committed to enabling the global adoption of innovative and sustainable technologies,” said Andreas Thomasch, Director & Chief Technology Officer for Germany and Austria at Lenovo. “By designing and configuring this solution together, we’ve demonstrated that organizations can achieve exceptional performance without compromising on sustainability. With Lenovo Neptune™ Liquid Cooling, even the most demanding workloads will run efficiently while helping Merck drive progress in both science and industry.”
Lenovo Neptune™ is one of the most advanced data center liquid-cooling technologies in the market, designed to remove heat directly from server components with far greater efficiency than traditional air-cooling methods. For high-performance compute clusters, where component density and power consumption are significantly higher than in standard enterprise systems, advanced cooling is essential for balancing energy efficiency with raw performance. By adopting this technology, Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany can support cutting-edge research while upholding stringent environmental and sustainability objectives.
Equinix’s role in the project extends well beyond providing a physical space for the HPC system. As AI adoption expands rapidly across industries, organizations increasingly require digital infrastructure capable of supporting specialized processing, distributed data flows, and high-speed interconnection. Equinix offers a neutral, globally interconnected digital ecosystem purpose-built for AI and high-performance computing deployments. This includes high-bandwidth connectivity options, proximity to cloud providers, and advanced data exchange capabilities that ensure secure movement of information between ecosystems.
Modern HPC and AI workloads demand environments built around speed, reliability, and efficiency. Equinix’s International Business Exchange® (IBX®) data centers meet these needs by integrating advanced cooling technologies—including liquid-cooling capabilities now deployed in more than 100 facilities across over 45 global metropolitan areas. By offering infrastructure designed to support emerging compute-intensive technologies, Equinix enables organizations like Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany to scale AI and HPC applications responsibly while lowering energy consumption and contributing to broader corporate ESG goals.
“This partnership embodies what the future of innovation looks like—where digital infrastructure, compute, and science converge to solve humanity’s biggest challenges,” said Harmeen Mehta, Chief Digital and Innovation Officer at Equinix. “At Equinix, we are proud to power that convergence. Together with Merck and Lenovo, we are proving that when technology scales responsibly, innovation doesn’t just accelerate—it can transform industries and redefine what’s possible.”
The collaboration marks a significant milestone in the evolution of research-supporting digital infrastructure in Europe. As scientific fields become increasingly dependent on computational power, organizations are seeking solutions that not only offer performance but also sustainability, flexibility, and global reach. The partnership between Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, Lenovo, and Equinix demonstrates what is possible when leading companies pool expertise across hardware engineering, data-center infrastructure, and scientific application.
Through this initiative, Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany is building a foundation for future breakthroughs—whether in life-saving medicines, sustainable industrial materials, or technologies that power the digital devices of tomorrow. The HPC platform will enable researchers to explore data-rich environments, test sophisticated models, and uncover insights that would be impossible using previous generations of technology.
As the pace of scientific innovation accelerates, the ability to combine high-performance computing with modern digital infrastructure is quickly becoming a core competitive advantage. With this new supercomputing environment, Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany is positioning itself at the forefront of global scientific and technological progress—equipped to tackle the challenges of today and ready to seize the opportunities of tomorrow.
Source Link:https://news.lenovo.com/
