Opera announced plans to deploy a new AI cluster in Keflavik, Iceland. Opera’s AI data cluster features an NVIDIA DGX SuperPOD, will begin operation in February 2024 and will be powered entirely by green energy.
Opera was developed in Norway and is one of the oldest desktop web browsers still actively developed. Since early 2023, Opera has been innovating in the browser AI space, putting AI at the center of its product development. All of the company’s flagship browsers already boast native AI features, including Aria Browser AI. Opera believes AI will soon take on a role beyond that of a chatbot and help users perform more elaborate browser tasks, requiring more AI computing power. The data cluster in Iceland will allow Opera to deliver new custom capabilities for its browser users, in addition to those built on top of solutions provided by Opera’s AI partners.
Green, cost-efficient, and centralized
“Opera was the first browser to introduce built-in AI services in the spring of 2023, offering both PC and mobile users the benefit of its generative AI assistant, Aria. Aria is fast evolving, and we continue to expand its capabilities as a browsing companion for our users,” said Krystian Zubel, VP of Group IT at Opera. “Iceland will complement our existing infrastructure across the globe as a green, cost-efficient, and centralized hub for computation-heavy tasks, ensuring that Opera has the infrastructure in place to seize the opportunities we see and allowing our company to rapidly evolve and expand its AI services.”
Smallest environmetal impact possible
Opera’s AI cluster is designed to have the smallest possible impact on the environment. Located in Iceland, it relies on hydroelectric and geothermal power for energy and fresh Icelandic air for cooling. Opera did not disclose the data center operator, but atNorth has been mentioned. The new cluster is an NVIDIA DGX SuperPOD, equipped with the newest NVIDIA H100 Tensor Core GPUs and the NVIDIA AI Enterprise software platform, which streamlines the development and deployment of production-grade AI applications. The full-stack system will work as a single AI cluster serving Opera’s AI workloads. The state-of-the-art NVIDIA H100 GPUs allow for four times faster AI training and 30 times faster inference on large language models compared to the previous generation of the GPU.
“Organizations modernizing their business with AI require powerful infrastructure to develop large language models and enable generative AI applications,” said Carlo Ruiz, EMEA Director of AI Data Center Solutions and Operations at NVIDIA. “NVIDIA DGX SuperPOD with NVIDIA H100 GPUs provides Opera with advanced AI supercomputing capabilities, helping developers create new features to bring generative AI experiences to users’ fingertips.”
