ASCS Blog

When GPUs Become Geopolitics

Tue, 14 Jul 2026 05:38:48 GMT

AI, Simulation, and European IT Sovereignty

Engineers who run simulations and train AI models tend to treat compute like water and electricity: always available today, surely available tomorrow. That assumption no longer holds. Over the past two years, a series of events has made one thing unmistakably clear — the foundation of your business is vulnerable to blackmail. Whether you accept that or change it is a strategic decision. This article makes the case for changing it, shows where Europe actually stands, and closes with three things you can do this quarter.

Four warning shots

A data center as a military target.

Earlier this year, for the first time, a large cloud data center was deliberately destroyed in the Middle East. Not by accident, and not because it sat next to a military compound — it was targeted precisely because, for many companies in the region, it was their single point of failure. The provider's response? AWS "strongly" recommended that customers migrate to other cloud regions and restore any inaccessible resources from remote backups. One hopes everyone had backups — physically separated from production.

The seabed as a front line.

Europe increasingly relies on data center capacity in the Nordics, and therefore on undersea cables. Those life-links are under active attack: eleven cables damaged in fifteen months. That is a pattern, not an accident. We talk a great deal about cloud providers and chip fabs, but sovereignty starts on the seabed. If a hostile actor can sever the cable, every layer of your stack above it runs at someone else's tolerance.

Even defense is rationed.

At the other end of the spectrum sit the models themselves. Anthropic recently released the most capable cybersecurity model to date — able to execute cyber-attacks and to defend against them with capabilities far beyond anything previous. Access is restricted to a short, exclusive list of organizations. If you can find a European company on that list, do let me know.

Data platforms as instruments of power.

And it is not only models. The CEO of Palantir — the company whose platform underlies the data of governments, defense ministries, and a growing number of European enterprises — describes his own mission as being there "to disrupt," to scare enemies and, on occasion, kill them. That is not a critic's caricature; it is the vendor's self-description. The question is not whether such a partner will turn on you tomorrow. The question is that they could — and someone else decides.

And then there are the GPUs.

The entire GPU production capacity for 2027 is already sold out. You no longer simply buy a GPU; you apply for one, and NVIDIA decides whether you get it. Jensen Huang put it plainly: "We do the best we can to allocate fairly, and to avoid allocating unnecessarily." Consider that vocabulary — allocate, fairly. That is the language of rationing, not of a market. In practice, every system integrator must report its customers' requests upstream and wait for a decision on which clients may receive GPUs. If you plan to buy in quantity, your CEO had better not speak badly about NVIDIA in public.

Your stack, layer by layer

Walk your own simulation and AI landscape from the bottom up:

Silicon — CPUs, GPUs, even RAM. In Europe, we practically have to beg for memory modules right now. Infrastructure — data centers, energy, networks, servers. Platforms — cloud, orchestration, data analytics. Models — the weights, and the ability to train them, on someone's hardware, somewhere.

On top of these layers sits everything a simulation-driven business cares about: digital twins, CAE and systems simulation, physics-aware AI, scientific ML, simulation data management. All of it rests on dependencies you do not control, and your accumulated engineering knowledge lives in data platforms you may not fully control either.

So ask directly: whose terms is your business running on? How many of these dependencies could be switched off — by an export control, a court order, an allocation email? And in each case, who decides? Today, it is not you.

What sovereignty means — and what it does not

The word is often misused, so let me be precise. Sovereignty is not protectionism. It is not autarky. It is emphatically not "buy only European." We do not need to build everything ourselves. Resilience rests on three principles:

Optionality.

Never let one vendor, one silicon family, or one jurisdiction be the only path to production.

Reversibility.

Architect so you can move. Switching cost is the real measure of dependence — if you cannot afford to leave, you have already been captured.

Redundancy.

Keep a working copy of what is truly critical, under your own laws and on your own hardware.

A GPU is no longer just a component. A frontier model is no longer just software. They have become a currency and an instrument of geopolitical power. The only question is whether we treat that as someone else's infrastructure problem — or as ours.

The European playbook: stronger than its reputation

There is, in fact, a European playbook, and for the first time in a long time it is more interesting than people give it credit for.

Start with public investment — there is real money on the table, more than ever before. In recent years, more than a dozen supercomputers have been built across the EU, operated under EuroHPC, essentially the compute arm of the European Commission. The fastest system today is JUPITER in Jülich, Europe's first exascale machine; next year it will be superseded by the even faster Alice Recoque. Crucially, these systems are open to industry, not just academia — you can apply for compute time. A new wave is being deployed right now in the form of AI Factories — nineteen in total, with systems like Mimer in Sweden and HammerHAI in Stuttgart already in production.

Europe's ambitions do not stop at buying machines. Starting this year, some of these supercomputers will be extended with CPUs from SiPearl — designed in Europe, built on European intellectual property. The first generation is honestly not yet performance-competitive, but the next generation will catch up. What matters is that the capability now exists.

Where the playbook is thin is the industrial half. Europe is genuinely world-class in academia and public research, but it lacks leading open-weight frontier models, sufficient industrial compute capacity (there is still no European hyperscaler), competitive CPUs and GPUs at volume, and data platforms on the level of a Palantir under European control. That gap is where the real work lies.

Sovereignty is a decision — the aerospace lesson

Why does Europe have a strong aerospace industry? Why do we build top-tier passenger aircraft, fighter jets, helicopters, and satellites? Because decades ago, when Europe stood at the brink of full dependence on foreign technology, the UK, France, Spain, and Germany took a strategic decision: they became shareholders of Airbus and committed to a long-term mission of building a sovereign aerospace industry. Being sovereign is not an accident. It is a decision.

In April this year, something similar happened in computing: the French state-owned investment fund acquired Bull — with science + computing as part of it — to accelerate the European playbook for a sovereign AI landscape. Bull is not starting from zero: it has delivered the majority of Europe's supercomputers and AI Factories, with custom servers manufactured in its own European factories, backed by its own patents and IP. And nobody buys these systems for the EU label — they buy them because the systems are often simply better, holding the top three positions on the list of the world's most energy-efficient supercomputers.

Backed by a ten-year investment agreement, the mission is explicit: build a world-class European ecosystem in AI, HPC, and quantum; ensure these strategic technologies remain in Europe; accelerate innovation for industry, research, and defence.

For an industrial user, that translates into something concrete: a credible non-US, non-Asian compute alternative with no compromise on performance; an open-source-based AI and simulation stack designed to dissolve vendor lock-in rather than create a new one; solutions that respect EU regulations by design, including mission-critical use cases; and a partner that cannot be externally influenced or controlled, with your IP and data protected against outside interference. There is also a boring-sounding advantage that stops being boring the moment an interconnect fails at 2 a.m.: the engineer on the phone speaks your language, sits on your continent, is governed by your laws, and can be in your data center by the end of the week.

Proof point: re-architecting a global manufacturer's CAE landscape

A recent example makes this tangible. A few weeks ago, we completed the re-architecture of the entire CAE simulation landscape of a leading European manufacturer. Three compute sites were created — two in Europe and one in Asia. The customer provided the concrete slab; essentially everything else arrived pre-assembled in modular data center containers, built in our own factory and lifted from the lorry onto the slab like Lego blocks. From concrete slab to production in a matter of weeks.

On the middleware level, the three sites are federated into one virtual, redundant cluster — redundancy at a global level — fully integrated into the existing tooling and workflow automation, with a large low-latency storage layer underneath. The design principles: simulation engineer first, minimum total cost of ownership, exascale-grade performance and efficiency. The long-term partnership also includes co-creating what comes next — confidential computing, physics-aware AI, next-generation simulation data management — which is where the public details must end, because we are now talking about digital product-creation capabilities beyond what our customer's competitors can do.

The honest ledger: sovereignty is not free

It would be dishonest to present this as a clean win. The costs are real. CUDA still has the most mature kernel ecosystem on Earth; ROCm is closing the gap, but it is not closed. Bleeding-edge training throughput is genuinely higher on the US hyperscalers. Multi-vendor simulation architectures cost engineering hours. Open weights demand operational investment that a managed API does not.

Name those costs — and then weigh them against the other side of the ledger, which stays hidden until it doesn't. You do not see what an export control costs until your vendor cannot ship. You do not see what jurisdictional exposure costs until a foreign discovery order arrives. You do not see what a concentrated supply chain costs until a single fab goes offline.

A small, known engineering premium today, against a large, unknown operational loss tomorrow. That is insurance, not idealism.

Three things to do this quarter

Not next year. This quarter.

1. Review the stack.

For every workload, answer: where is it running, on whose silicon, under whose terms — and what would it cost to move it? Be honest, because "we cannot move it" has a precise meaning: it owns you.

2. Stand up one workload on European infrastructure.

EuroHPC compute time, European hardware, an open-weight model, a sovereign stack. One real workload — established as a permanent capability, not a pilot.

3. Unify the roadmap.

Stop procuring simulation and AI infrastructure separately. The convergence is happening whether you plan for it or not, so align the two roadmaps now.

The rules of this technology are being written as we speak — in code, in contracts, in standards. Be at the table, not on the menu.

Sovereignty is a strategic choice, not a technical one.

This article is based on a talk given in July 2026. Dr. Marcus Camen is CTO of Bull science + computing.

Autor: Dr. Marcus Camen

Dr. Marcus Camen is CTO of the science + computing business unit at Bull, where he works closely with customers to shape simulation and AI environments that are ready for the future. He is passionate about pushing the boundaries of simulation and accelerating Europe's innovation sovereignty.

Before taking on this role, he spent many years at science + computing hands-on designing HPC-based IT environments that enable engineering teams to get designs "first time right" through digital simulation.

Use Simulation with Precision

Mon, 04 May 2026 18:57:34 GMT

Use Simulation with Precision

We don’t know if this was truly on the minds of attendees at the 2026 Hannover Messe. But Carl von Clausewitz knew it more than a century ago:

“Every unnecessary expenditure of time, every unnecessary detour, is a waste of energy and therefore abhorrent to strategy […] Theory therefore demands the shortest path to the goal and leaves aside endless discussions about going left or right, here or there.”

Clausewitz was writing about war, but also about how decisions are made across time and space. His ideas can be applied to business: in complex environments, they help leaders make clear and focused decisions. It is about strategic thinking, strong leadership, and the ability to adapt—especially when facing an “army” of new technologies.

However, despite all the talk about technology at the event, the most important questions were rarely answered: What is the goal? And what does it cost to achieve it?

Artificial intelligence, digital twins, or frameworks like AAS are all important. But at the core, the goal is simple: to create more profit with data-driven approaches. Moving from one use case to another does not automatically create a business case. Clausewitz would ask: What is the underlying strategy? And where does it lead?

Success in digital transformation is more than vision and technology. It requires a clear understanding of markets, forces, interests, partners, and competitors. The key difference today is that success increasingly depends on how well companies operate within ecosystems.

The event d1g1tal DEPARTURE shows practical ways for companies to move forward in uncertain markets and make better use of ecosystems.

Learn more about resource-efficient digital strategies for business success at the first d1g1tal DEPARTURE Day on May 8, 2026, in Friedrichshafen:

Autor: Dr. Bernhard Valnion

Dr. Bernhard Valnion is the Editor-in-Chief of the Quarterly Review DIGITAL AGENDA at the Institute for Innovation and Market Success (IIME) and also serves as shareholder and publisher at d1g1tal AGENDA UG. Prior to this, he worked for more than 16 years as Editorial Head at Göller Verlag and is recognized for his extensive expertise in digitalization and innovation.

Recap simpulse day webinar automotive HVAC

Mon, 08 Sep 2025 17:48:18 GMT

Recap simpulse day webinar: Optimizing Automotive HVAC Systems for Comfort and Efficiency

In the rapidly evolving world of mobility, the role of heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems is becoming increasingly critical. These systems not only ensure passenger comfort but also significantly impact overall vehicle

performance. However, simulating HVAC systems in automotive applications presents unique challenges due to their complexity.

Our online simpulse day focused on HVAC simulation for road vehicles, aiming to uncover how advanced simulation techniques can enhance comfort, efficiency, and vehicle performance.

Key Topics Discuss ed:

Dynamic Environmental Conditions

Automotive HVAC systems must adapt to varying environmental conditions like temperature, humidity, and altitude. Simulating these dynamic responses requires robust modeling techniques and real-time control strategies to maintain optimal comfort and efficiency.

Thermal Management Challenges

HVAC systems are vital for thermal management, especially in electric and hybrid vehicles where battery temperature regulation is crucial for performance and longevity. This requires complex simulations to understand the interaction between HVAC systems and other components like batteries and powertrains.

Validation and Verification

Ensuring simulation accuracy through validation against real-world data is essential. However, obtaining such data can be difficult, particularly in early design stages. Developing robust validation methodologies is key to building confidence in

simulation results.

Energy Efficiency and Sustainability Goals

As energy efficiency and sustainability become critical concerns, manufacturers must design HVAC systems that minimize energy consumption. Simulating the trade-offs between comfort, efficiency, and system performance involves sophisticated optimization techniques and comprehensive analysis.

Featured Speakers and Their Topics:

Autorin des Artikels

AI-based Cooling Circuit and Vehicle Models with Electrified Powertrains
Dr.-Ing. Michael Grill | FKFS

Dr. Grill shared insights into AI-driven models that enhance cooling circuits and overall vehicle performance in electrified powertrains using real-world field measurements.

Dr.-Ing. Michael Grill | FKFS

Autorin des Artikels

Simulative Training of an AI Control for User-Centered Thermal Comfort
Daniel Braun | AVL Deutschland GmbH

Braun explored AI controls designed to optimize thermal comfort by simulating various user-centered scenarios.

Daniel Braun | AVL

Autorin des Artikels

Optimizing Battery Range & Thermal Comfort for BEVs with CFD & System Model Co-Simulation

Rakesh Dontham | Dassault Systèmes Deutschland GmbH

Dontham discussed using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) and system model co-simulation to enhance battery range and thermal comfort in Battery Electric Vehicles (BEVs).

Rakesh Dontham | Dassault Systèmes

This webinar underscored the transformative potential of advanced HVAC simulations in driving innovation and efficiency in the automotive sector. As we move forward, these insights will be of great importance in developing HVAC systems that

meet future mobility needs.

For more information about this deep dive on this exciting topic and how you can use it in your environment, please contact us directly. Share your thoughts with us and engage in dialog with our experts.

You also have the opportunity to access the recording – just get in touch with us.

Autor: Egon Wiedekind

Egon Wiedekind is passionate about the future-oriented topics of simulation, artificial intelligence (AI), and high-performance computing (HPC) . Guided by his conviction that simulation is the key to sound decisions and sustainable innovation , he has been actively promoting the transfer of knowledge between research, industry, and society for many years.

As the initiator of Game Changer Simulation (GCS) and press spokesman and mentor of the Automotive Solution Center for Simulation (ASCS), he designs formats that pool knowledge, broaden perspectives, and enable new collaborations. Whether in the context of high-profile events such as the AI & Data-driven Simulation Forum, panel discussions, or strategic partnerships, Egon Wiedekind stands for a clear message: simulation and AI are the dream team for today's challenges and tomorrow's solutions.

Double innovation – When ASCS and DFKI combine their strengths

Mon, 08 Sep 2025 17:32:24 GMT

Partnerships as a driving force for innovation and success in the industry

The dynamic world of the mobility industry is on the verge of significant change,

thanks to today's revolutionary technologies. A forward-looking partnership between

the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI) and the Automotive

Solution Center for Simulation (ASCS) promises to further advance this development.

In this article, we take a closer look at the strategic collaboration and what it means

for the future of simulation technologies.

The cooperation between DFKI and ASCS aims to optimize the use of artificial intelligence in simulation applications for the mobility industry. Both institutions bring their unique strengths to the table: DFKI as a pioneer in AI research and ASCS as a leading player in simulation technology.

Together, they strive to intensify the transfer of knowledge between research and industry. Through innovative projects, technologies are to be developed that will shape sustainable progress in the mobility industry. In this way, ASCS and DFKI are building a bridge between theoretical research and practical application in the field of simulation technology.

Overall, this cooperation marks a significant step towards the future. By combining resources and know-how, there is the potential to set new standards in the industry. We can look forward to seeing what innovations will emerge from this collaboration.

The collaboration has been widely welcomed. The following comment by Lars Thomsen is a prime example - unabridged.

Lars Thomsen

This is an enormously important signal for Germany and Europe!

Two institutions from different industries and fields of activity are joining forces to actively shape the path to the future. They are researching the interplay between human and artificial intelligence, strengthening the understanding of those involved and creating completely new approaches to providing sustainable support for industry.

The atmosphere here is one of not just demanding and complaining, but of thinking ahead and “acting ahead” together (as Gerd Chrzanowski from the Schwarz Group so aptly described in an interview with Manager Magazin).

The combination of asking the right questions, thinking deeply, and inspiring implementers is a form of cooperation that is truly groundbreaking.

This partnership marks the beginning of a new chapter of innovation and inspiration – one that arises when visionaries like Egon Wiedekind , Christoph Gümbel, Alexander F. Walser , and scientists like Philipp and other thought leaders work together to create platforms that will lead industry, research, and society into the future faster, more successfully, and with more joy and inspiration.

Congratulations on this groundbreaking collaboration!

Lars Thomsen, Founder & Chief Futurist of future matters AG

For more information about this exciting partnership and how/what it could do for the industry, please visit our website or contact us directly. Share your thoughts with us and engage in dialog with our experts.

Autor: Egon Wiedekind

simpulse webinar NCAP 2026 recap

Mon, 08 Sep 2025 17:32:22 GMT

simpulse webinar recap
Leveraging Virtual Testing for NCAP 2026 “Crash Avoidance” and Beyond

The upcoming NCAP 2026 protocols set significantly higher requirements for active safety performance, particularly in the area of Crash Avoidance and Automated Assistance Driving (AAD). Traditional proving ground tests are reaching their limits – they are resource-intensive, costly, and often insufficient to cover the wide range of critical scenarios required for future compliance.

On June 10, 2025 , experts from Valeo and Ansys presented how virtual testing can effectively complement physical testing. The session demonstrated how simulation-driven validation enables more efficient, scalable, and robust development processes – supporting the next generation of vehicle safety.

Key Topics Covered

Understanding NCAP 2026 Requirements

An overview of the new crash avoidance criteria and their impact on ADAS and AAD development.

Virtual Testing as a Complement to Physical Testing

How simulation-based approaches allow broader scenario coverage, scalability, and repeatability from concept to validation.

Efficiency, Scalability, Robustness

Using simulation to replicate complex real-world driving scenarios in a safe and cost-effective way.

Industry Use Cases

Insights from Valeo and Ansys showcasing how simulation accelerates ADAS validation.

Expert Contributions

The webinar featured four industry experts who shared their perspectives and best practices:

Petr Fomin| Ansys

D r. Petr Fomin serves as an Application Engineering Manager at Ansys , specializing in the AVxcelerate product line. With over ten years of expertise in sensor engineering and autonomous driving, Petr has extensive experience in developing and applying physics-based real-time simulations for virtual testing and validation of autonomous systems. His strong foundation in robotics complements his deep understanding of simulation technologies.

Petr Fomin| Ansys

Autorin des Artikels

Emmanuel Follin | Ansys

Emmanuel Follin is a Senior Product Manager for Autonomous Vehicle Simulation Solutions at Ansys Inc., the world’s largest, independent Computer Aided Engineering (CAE) software company (NASDAQ: ANSS). With over 20 years of experience in system simulation covering Automotive and Aeronautic, Emmanuel plays a pivotal role in leading Ansys’ efforts in the ADAS and Autonomous Vehicle simulation domain, managing the AVxcelerate product.

Emmanuel Follin | Ansys

Autorin des Artikels

Jakub Jelinek | Valeo

Dr. Jakub Jelinek holds a Ph.D. in Mechatronics and Statistical Engineering and brings over 15 years of cross-sector experience in simulation, spanning the automotive, aerospace, and nuclear industries. Currently serving as Global Simulation Platform Manager at Valeo, he leads global technical initiatives in simulation, with a strong focus on coordination, education, quality assurance, method standardization, toolchain validation, and strategic innovation. His role supports the digitization of simulation workflows, including the adoption of cloud-based simulations, KPI tracking, and simulation strategy development.

Jakub Jelinek | Valeo

Autorin des Artikels

Hector-Ruben Prada | Valeo

Hector-Ruben Prada is an Electrical Engineer specialized in Digital Systems and Communications, with extensive experience in the automotive industry supporting Tier 1 OEMs. He currently works at Valeo as an R&D Technical Project Manager, where he leads Hardware-in-the-Loop (HiL) simulation activities as part of the system validation strategy for ADAS front cameras.

The webinar made one thing clear: virtual testing is essential to meet the growing demands of NCAP 2026 . By enabling a wider range of critical driving scenarios, simulation not only ensures compliance but also reduces development time and cost.

If you would like to explore how virtual testing can support your projects, get in touch with our experts.

The recording is now available. If you are interested, please reach out to us at event@asc-s.de .