Gauss Alliance

What Gauss Alliance does

Gauß-Allianz e.V. is a German non-profit association (eingetragener Verein, registration VR 28849 B, founded 2017) that serves as the national coordination body for High Performance Computing (HPC) in Germany. Registered in Berlin, it bundles the expertise of 19 member institutions — universities, research centres, and HPC facilities — to coordinate the German HPC landscape, support sustainable and efficient use of supercomputing resources, and improve international visibility of German HPC. Its mandate is non-commercial: activities include policy coordination, knowledge transfer, SME outreach, and project-level liaison with federal and European funding bodies.

The organization's primary technical asset is its national HPC Portal (gauss-allianz.de), a unified digital gateway integrating the HPC Wiki (national knowledge database), the HPC Map (39 centres), the HPC Ecosystem directory (54 systems), the HPC Calendar, the GA-Infobrief newsletter, and an OTRS-backed HPC Service Desk. Authentication is integrated with DFN-AAI (the German Research Network's identity federation). Beyond the portal, Gauß-Allianz coordinates projects funded through BMBF (GreenHPC, SCALEXA), DFG (SPPEXA), and EuroHPC, and maintains NGI-DE as Germany's node of the European Grid Infrastructure (EGI). Strategic partnerships span HLRN, GCS (HLRS, JSC, LRZ), ZKI, KONWIHR, regional HPC networks (bwHPC, NRW competence network), and the new KI-Servicezentren for AI-HPC convergence.

Gauß-Allianz is governed by a three-member executive board (Prof. Dr. Wolfgang E. Nagel, Prof. Dr. Thomas Ludwig, Prof. Dr. Michael M. Resch) and operates four offices (Berlin HQ, Heilbronn, Berlin-Dahlem, Erlangen). Revenue is not commercially generated; the association is funded by public research grants, EuroHPC co-funding, and member contributions. No pricing model exists for its services, which are delivered via the public portal and member-driven coordination rather than commercial channels.

Name

Gauss Alliance

Legal name

Gauß-Allianz e.V.

Website

https://gauss-allianz.de

Company type

Private

Operating status

Operating

Short description

Gauß-Allianz e.V. is Germany's national non-profit association coordinating High Performance Computing across 19 member institutions, 39 centres, and 54 systems via its HPC Portal, Wiki, Map, and newsletter.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Scientific Computing Services

NAICS

Business Associations (813910), Professional Organizations (81392), Computer Systems Design and Related Services (54151)

SIC

Services-Membership Organizations (8600), Services-Computer Integrated Systems Design (7373)

akta.pro primary industry

AI/HPC Converged Systems (Hybrid Training/Simulation) (HDACAOAD)

Keywords

• High performance computing
• HPC coordination
• Scientific computing
• Supercomputing events
• Research infrastructure

Headquarters

HQ city

Berlin

HQ country

Germany

HQ region

Europe

Offices4 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Others

Distribution channels2 records

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

Gauss Alliance is a Berlin-registered, non-profit eingetragener Verein (e.V.) that acts as a national coordination body for High Performance Computing (HPC) in Germany. It bundles the competencies of its member institutions, serves as a central contact point for scientific users and industry, and represents German HPC interests at events such as the ISC International Supercomputing Conference and through student competitions.

Product overview

Gauß-Allianz e.V. is a German HPC coordination network (not a software product company) that operates a unified HPC Portal as its primary digital platform. The portal integrates several complementary services: the HPC Wiki serves as a national knowledge database, the HPC Map visualizes 39 HPC center locations, the HPC Ecosystem catalogs 54 HPC systems across Germany, the GA-Infoletter delivers regular newsletter updates, the HPC Calendar lists upcoming events, and the HPC Service Desk provides ticketed support. Together, these offerings form a coordinated national HPC ecosystem designed to support the science community by creating requirements for sustainable and efficient use of supercomputing resources.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• ISC International Supercomputing Conference participation Public-facing presence and coordination activities at the ISC International Supercomputing Conference, used to represent German HPC interests and engage member institutions and industry partners.
• HPC student competition sponsorship Sponsored student competitions tied to HPC events, aimed at engaging students and showcasing HPC talent within the alliance's member community.
• National HPC coordination and contact point service A national coordination service that bundles the competencies of German HPC stakeholders and acts as a single contact point for scientific and industry users seeking HPC engagement in Germany.

Segments1 record

Ideal customer profiles1 record

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature1 record

Partnerships

14 partnerships are on record, tiered core, major and minor.

• HLRN (Norddeutscher Verbund für Hoch- und Höchstleistungsrechnen)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerSeven federal states (Berlin, Brandenburg, Bremen, Hamburg, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Niedersachsen, Schleswig-Holstein) are united in HLRN to promote high and highest performance computing. HLRN operates a distributed supercomputer system installed at Georg-August-Universität Göttingen and Zuse-Institut Berlin.
• NGI-DE (Nationale Grid Initiative für Deutschland)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerNGI-DE is the National Grid Initiative for Germany, part of the European Grid Initiative (EGI). It is maintained by Gauß-Allianz e.V. and provides a reliable and secure e-infrastructure for Germany, enabling a carrier-grade grid and cloud for academic communities.
• ZKI e.V. (Zentren für Kommunikation und Informationsverarbeitung)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerZKI e.V. is the working group for supercomputing, offering a forum for exchange on procurement, operation, and use of high performance computers and computer clusters in science. The ZKI office is located in Heilbronn.
• KONWIHR (Kompetenznetzwerk für Wissenschaftliches Höchstleistungsrechnen in Bayern)majorStrategic or Co-development PartnerKONWIHR is the Bavarian state-funded competence network for scientific HPC. It supports Bavarian scientists in adapting and developing numerical applications for modern parallel architectures. KONWIHR offices are in Erlangen (Nord) and Regensburg/Würzburg (Süd).
• EGI (European Grid Infrastructure)coreTechnology or IntegrationEuropean Grid Infrastructure Foundation. NGI-DE is part of EGI, connecting Germany's grid infrastructure into the European e-infrastructure network.
• GCS (Gauss Centre for Supercomputing) e.V.coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerGCS unites the three German federal high-performance computing centres: HLRS (Stuttgart), JSC (Jülich), and LRZ (Garching). With over 35 PetaFlops total computing power, it is Europe's leading supercomputing institution. It is a member of Gauß-Allianz.
• EuroHPC Joint UndertakingmajorStrategic or Co-development PartnerThe EuroHPC Joint Undertaking procures and operates supercomputers in Europe and funds R&D projects on HPC technologies and applications. Multiple Gauß-Allianz projects are funded through EuroHPC calls.
• BMBF (Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung)coreOthersGerman Federal Ministry of Education and Research funds numerous HPC projects coordinated through Gauß-Allianz, including GreenHPC, SCALEXA, and multiple HPC-Call programmes.
• DFN-Verein (Deutsches Forschungsnetz)coreTechnology or IntegrationThe DFN-Verein operates the German Research Network, providing high-performance network connections up to 100 Gbit/s, the X-WiN science network, and DFN-AAI authentication infrastructure used by Gauß-Allianz services.
• DFG (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft)majorOthersGerman Research Foundation funds DFG-funded HPC projects including SPPEXA (Software for Exascale Computing) and Performance Engineering for scientific software.
• bwHPC (Hochleistungsrechnen in Baden-Württemberg)minorStrategic or Co-development PartnerBaden-Württemberg's HPC network, part of the broader German HPC ecosystem supported by Gauß-Allianz.
• Nordrhein-Westfälisches Kompetenznetzwerk für HochleistungsrechnenminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerNorth Rhine-Westphalia's HPC competence network, part of the German HPC ecosystem coordinated by Gauß-Allianz.
• KI-Servicezentren (AI Service Centres)minorStrategic or Co-development PartnerNational AI service centres integrated into the HPC ecosystem, expanding HPC+AI convergence in Germany.
• National High Performance Computing Center at KITminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerNational HPC centre at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, part of Germany's HPC infrastructure network.

Scale indicators3 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• PRACE (Partnership for Advanced Computing in Europe): Pan-European HPC access and coordination body. Directly comparable to Gauss Alliance in mission (coordinating and allocating HPC resources) and structure (multi-member consortium), but operating at the European level rather than a single national jurisdiction.
• TERATEC: French HPC coordination and competence cluster bringing together academia, industry, and research centers. Closely parallels Gauss Alliance's mandate to coordinate national HPC resources and promote industry-academia HPC adoption in France.
• CINECA Consortium: Italian non-profit consortium of universities and research institutions operating national HPC infrastructure. Comparable non-profit model coordinating supercomputing for an Italian scientific community, with overlapping federal-level research mission.

Broad incumbents

• EuroHPC Joint Undertaking: EU-level legal entity pooling Member State and EU investment to procure and operate world-class supercomputers and fund R&D. Provides the broader institutional framework into which Gauss Alliance's German coordination feeds and partially overlaps.
• EGI Foundation (European Grid Infrastructure): Federated e-infrastructure body coordinating grid and cloud compute across Europe. Directly comparable to the NGI-DE component that Gauss Alliance maintains — overlapping grid coordination mission with cross-border scope.
• Gauss Centre for Supercomputing (GCS): Alliance of the three federal German HPC centers (HLRS, JSC, LRZ) with over 35 PetaFlops capacity. GCS is itself a member of Gauss Alliance but operates as a tier-1 supercomputing provider with deeper infrastructure ownership than the coordination role Gauss Alliance plays.

Regional players

• Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC-CNS): Spanish national supercomputing center hosting one of Europe's most powerful systems (MareNostrum). Operates as a regional HPC coordination node with national mandate, comparable in mission to the role Gauss Alliance plays for Germany, but anchored in a single host institution.

Others

• OpenPOWER Foundation: Worldwide open-hardware consortium of which Gauss Alliance is a member. Comparable in mission to drive open ecosystem development in HPC infrastructure, but focused on hardware/open standards rather than national coordination.
• Leibniz-Rechenzentrum (LRZ) der Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften: Bavarian computing center operating one of Germany's largest supercomputers (SuperMUC-NG) and a Gauss Alliance member. Comparable as a national-scale HPC operator and innovation hub, though it operates infrastructure rather than coordinating the network.
• Norddeutscher Verbund für Hoch- und Höchstleistungsrechnen (HLRN): Seven-state Northern German alliance for HPC operating a distributed supercomputer system. A strategic partner of Gauss Alliance with comparable inter-state coordination mandate but sub-national regional scope.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/hpc_deutschland

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles3 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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M&A

Investments

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Frequently asked questions about Gauss Alliance