Bull

In this Vendor Showdown session, Stuart Wilson presents the rebirth of Bull, marking 2026 as an important year following the July 2025 announcement that APE, the French sovereign fund, would acquire Bull from Eviden. He emphasizes that Bull is a privately owned company with a single shareholder operating profitably, tracing its heritage to Frederick Bull's 1919 tabulating machine. Bull is positioned as an engineering-focused company with 3,000 engineers and the only European firm delivering an end-to-end stack from components through systems, AI and data management software, and use cases, investing 13 percent of revenue in R&D. Wilson highlights Bull's European sovereignty, including its BXI interconnect, operations in 32 countries, and a new, larger factory in Angers together with a Foxconn partnership to accelerate AI infrastructure. On performance, Bull has been awarded Europe's first two exascale systems, having delivered Jupiter at Julich and working on the Alice Recoque system. On energy efficiency, Bull holds the top three Green500 positions and offers a fifth-generation closed-loop direct liquid cooling with 40 degree Celsius inlet temperatures enabling energy reuse, plus a single-rack AI supercomputer with an integrated CDU and the Argos scheduling software. Q&A addresses balancing performance with sustainability and energy reuse for heating, the public-cost justification given the acquisition (clarified as a private company enabling long-term investment), the heavy weight of the Sequana XH3500 rack requiring reinforced data center floors, and the distinction of designing and manufacturing systems in Europe versus assembly elsewhere.