BERLIN 

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz on Friday inaugurated Jupiter, Europe's fastest supercomputer, calling it a "technological breakthrough" that marks a milestone in Germany's pursuit of becoming an "AI nation."

The exascale computer, capable of performing more than one quintillion operations per second, comparable to the computing capabilities of one million smartphones, was unveiled at the Julich Research Center in northwestern Germany.

"As a nation with a long tradition of scientific excellence and industrial strength, we must aspire to play a significant role—indeed, a leading role—in this technological revolution," Merz said. "We've included this commitment in our coalition agreement and distilled it to one simple sentence: We want Germany to become an AI nation," he added.

The €500 million ($588 million) system, ranked as the world's fourth fastest computer, represents a major investment in Europe's technological infrastructure. Funding comes from the European supercomputing initiative EuroHPC Joint Undertaking (50%), with the German federal government and North Rhine-Westphalia state each contributing 25%.