Roche is deploying more than 3,500 NVIDIA Blackwell graphics processing units (GPUs) across hybrid cloud and on-premises environments in the US and Europe, expanding an existing collaboration with NVIDIA to make artificial intelligence a core capability across its pharmaceutical and diagnostics operations.
The announcement was made at NVIDIA GTC, where Roche said the computing infrastructure would power biological foundation models, accelerate drug discovery workflows and underpin digital twins used to simulate and optimise pharmaceutical manufacturing.
Nearly 90% of eligible small-molecule drug programmes at Genentech, Roche's US-based biotechnology subsidiary, now integrate AI, according to the company.
Roche said one programme designed a degrader molecule, a type of drug that breaks down disease-causing proteins, 25% faster using AI, while a backup drug candidate was delivered in seven months rather than the two-plus years it would previously have taken.
The company said it will run NVIDIA BioNeMo for biological and molecular modelling, NVIDIA Omniverse for digital twins including a glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) drug manufacturing facility in North Carolina, and NVIDIA Parabricks and NeMo Guardrails across digital pathology and digital health projects.
Wafaa Mamilli, Roche's chief digital and technology officer, said the company was innovating at the intersection of science and technology to speed the development of drugs and diagnostic solutions.
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Roche framed the infrastructure build-out as a shift from isolated AI pilots to an enterprise-wide capability, supporting larger foundation models, agentic research workflows in which AI systems pursue multi-step goals with limited human input, AI-driven laboratory automation and advanced digital diagnostics across its global organisation.
The company did not disclose the total cost of the infrastructure deployment or the specific cloud providers involved in the hybrid arrangement.
The recap
- Roche deploying more than 3,500 NVIDIA Blackwell GPUs globally
- Hybrid cloud and on‑premises infrastructure supports model training and development
- Roche will use GPUs for discovery, digital twins and diagnostics
