AI Isn't Throttling HPC. It Is HPC
The Register, Tuesday, November 11th, 2025
In recent discussions with industry vendor sales/marketing types, I've been hearing that HPC demand is falling off while AI system demand is continuing to increase. I've also seen articles implying that AI is somehow displacing HPC. Huh?
Ok, this is The Reg, so I'd like to open this semi-rant by stating that the idea AI growth is smothering HPC spending is, well, stupid. Why? Because AI is a subset of a very broad HPC (High Performance Computing) category of workloads.
First, what is HPC? It's not an application; it's a loose term that covers apps and workflows many domains from financial services to pharma to manufacturing to a whole bunch of others. These are workloads that are demanding enough and important enough to justify the investment of time and money to run.