Google Cloud has announced a set of advanced technologies aimed at supporting researchers tackling some of the world’s most complex problems. These updates bring together high-performance computing and AI capabilities to help scientists work more efficiently and uncover new insights across areas like medicine, climate, and data science.

Supercomputing Power with New H4D Virtual Machines

One of the biggest highlights is the introduction of H4D VMs—Google Cloud’s fastest and most capable CPU-based virtual machines so far. Built with the latest AMD processors and ultra-fast Titanium networking, these machines allow researchers to run demanding simulations, process vast amounts of data, and train AI models at scale. As Harvard’s Petros Koumoutsakos put it, this kind of computing power could be a game-changer for advancing new treatments, especially in heart disease research.

This leap in computational capability will dramatically accelerate our pursuit of breakthrough therapeutics, bringing us closer to effective precision therapies for blood vessel damage in heart disease.

Petros Koumoutsakos at Harvard University

Easier Cluster Management and High-Speed Storage for Research Workloads

Managing high-performance computing systems can be tough, but Google Cloud’s new Cluster Toolkit simplifies this process. Together with the Cluster Director tool, scientists can now deploy and manage complex computing environments more easily and reliably. To handle the large storage needs of AI and scientific applications, Google also introduced Google Cloud Managed Lustre—a fast, fully managed file system designed for high-demand research projects.

Having access to AlphaFold on Google Cloud can help our researchers rapidly predict and explore the structure and interactions of all biomolecule classes, accelerating our understanding of diseases.

Sumaiya Iqbal from Broad Institute Ladders to Cures.

AI-Powered Models Help Unlock Faster Discoveries

Google is also enhancing its cloud offering with powerful AI models built for science. AlphaFold 3, developed by Google DeepMind, predicts the structure and behavior of molecules, helping researchers better understand diseases. Another tool, WeatherNext AI, offers faster and more accurate weather predictions—useful for everything from research studies to disaster preparedness. Both are now available through Google Cloud.

Smart AI Agents Designed to Support Researchers

To help speed up the research process, Google introduced two AI-powered agents on its Agentspace platform. The Deep Research agent helps synthesize large volumes of information and generate detailed reports, saving researchers valuable time. Meanwhile, the Idea Generation agent is built to spark creativity by helping scientists come up with new theories and directions to explore. Both tools are currently available in preview.