The largest supercomputer center in Hong Kong has been put into service

On December 9, 2024, Hong Kong's largest Cyberport Artificial Intelligence Supercomputing Center was officially put into service, and the Cyberport Artificial Intelligence Laboratory was also put into operation simultaneously

This is currently the largest computing facility in Hong Kong. Hong Kong Cyberport Chairman Chen Ximing stated that the total computing power capacity of the first phase facilities can be increased to 1300 PFLOPS within the year (1 PFLOPS is equivalent to a computing power of 1000 trillion times per second), and gradually increased to the level of 3000 PFLOPS next year to meet the urgent demand for computing power in the technology industry

In addition, the Cyberport Artificial Intelligence Laboratory will build a heterogeneous computing platform through computing power development, large-scale model construction, and artificial intelligence applications in different industries to jointly develop innovative artificial intelligence products for different industries and scenarios

To promote the development of local artificial intelligence, Hong Kong has introduced a series of policies in recent years: the "Hong Kong Innovation and Technology Development Blueprint" released in 2022 proposes to focus on developing advantageous technology industries in artificial intelligence and data science, and the 2023 Policy Address announces the phased establishment of an artificial intelligence supercomputing center at Cyberport to provide the necessary computing hardware for research teams

Hong Kong's Secretary for Innovation, Technology and Industry, Sun Dong, mentioned that in the new wave of technology, Hong Kong should actively compete for the high ground of global artificial intelligence development. Computing power is the foundation of artificial intelligence algorithm operation and data processing, and high-quality computing infrastructure plays a key role in promoting industrial development and innovation breakthroughs

Sun Dong believes that the government plays a very important role in Hong Kong's digital transformation and the application of artificial intelligence in the future, including providing computing power support and launching positive preferential policies. However, the most important thing is still the industry. Many application scenarios of artificial intelligence and digital technology are often created actively by the industry. Taking the mainland as an example, many application scenarios are created by enterprises. How to make the Hong Kong innovation and technology ecosystem, including artificial intelligence, better and push Hong Kong's innovation and technology level to a new height and level depends on the industry. The foundation of Hong Kong's innovation and technology is relatively weak, and now it is necessary to vigorously promote it. Attract foreign enterprises to build a local ecosystem. At Cyberport, over 330 start-up companies specializing in the research and development of artificial intelligence and big data have gathered, including introduced companies such as Wenge International, Laihua, and Suanfeng. They have also partnered with leading technology companies such as Baidu, Huawei, and Inspur Cloud, leveraging their research and development capabilities in computing power development and large model construction to collaborate with start-up companies

In order to promote technology transformation and application, the "Artificial Intelligence Funding Scheme" with a scale of HKD 3 billion was launched in October this year, mainly to subsidize five eligible units including local universities, research and development institutions, and enterprises to use the computing power of supercomputing centers

This plan is aimed at both local and non local businesses, and has corresponding conditional restrictions. For local enterprises, they need to engage in industries of strategic importance to Hong Kong, such as life and health, artificial intelligence and data science, financial technology, advanced manufacturing, and new energy technology industries. Their projects can contribute to Hong Kong's research and development and artificial intelligence innovation. Non local enterprises need to commit to landing in Hong Kong and hiring a certain number of professionals to promote the development of the local ecosystem

Huo Luming, Director of Artificial Intelligence Applications at Cyberport Enterprise Development Department, stated that the approval criteria include four aspects: first, the degree of assistance to Hong Kong's innovation and artificial intelligence development needs; second, whether the required computing power for the project is reasonable and well supported; third, the stability of technology and funding; and fourth, whether the project results are helpful to society

Sun Dong mentioned that within two months, Cyberport has received over 10 applications from local universities, startups, research and development institutions, etc

Huo Luming explained that currently, most of the models developed by the applying companies are applied locally in Hong Kong, and applicants have a high demand for computing power. This plan can support up to 70% of the computing cost of the applying companies or institutions, and the funding list is expected to be officially announced as soon as this month. "Currently, the largest AI model requires 10 calculators per year, each requiring a total computing power capacity of 8 PFLOPS; for small and medium-sized models, only two or three machines are needed." Before the launch of the supercomputing center, one of the computing power sources in the Hong Kong industry was the mainland. Liu Hongbin, Director of the Artificial Intelligence and Robotics Innovation Center at the Hong Kong Institute of Innovation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, told Interface News that the center began collaborating with Huawei in 2023 to develop a multimodal surgical model based on the Ascend computing power base. "Huawei will provide both computing power support and technical support, such as engineers helping to transplant and adapt operators."

The Hong Kong Institute of Innovation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, released the CARES Copilot embodied intelligent surgical AI model 2.0 version at the end of November. Liu Hongbin mentioned that the 2.0 base was trained in September, and the training efficiency and speed have been greatly improved. The Huawei base can also meet some core functions. It is expected that the large model will be partially open sourced in version 3.0 for use by Hong Kong and mainland enterprises

With the launch of the Supercomputing Center, the Hong Kong Institute of Innovation, Chinese Academy of Sciences may use local computing power in Hong Kong. Liu Hongbin revealed that both parties have discussed cooperation matters, and the Supercomputing Center has also expressed willingness to support the research institute's scientific research projects

However, Hong Kong still faces a significant computing power gap. According to the Legislative Council document released by the Hong Kong government in March this year, it is estimated that the demand for supercomputing capacity in Hong Kong will rapidly increase to 15000 PFLOPS in the coming years. This means that even after the Hong Kong Supercomputing Centre is put into operation, there is still a risk of a shortage of computing power