Mexico's Ministry of Science, Humanities, Technology and Innovation (SECIHTI) and the Digital Transformation and Telecommunications Agency (ATDT) signed a Letter of Intent with universities and public research centers to create the National High-Performance Computing and AI Cluster, a coordinated federal effort to consolidate fragmented computing resources across the country. The agreement, signed at a ceremony this week, ties together institutions that already operate advanced infrastructure, including the forthcoming Mexican supercomputer Coatlicue.
Rosaura Ruiz, head of SECIHTI, said the cluster will strengthen collaboration among institutions with advanced computing capabilities. "It is the beginning of a historic advance and, together with Coatlicue, the cluster will foster a break from current technology," Ruiz said during the signing. The cluster introduces a governance model to expand access, coordinate investments, and develop specialized talent in strategic technology fields, while aligning with federal goals to reduce dependence on external infrastructure for advanced computing and AI research.
Institutions forming the network
The initiative is jointly coordinated by SECIHTI and the ATDT. It brings together some of Mexico's largest academic and scientific institutions, including UNAM, the Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana (UAM), the Centro de Investigación Científica y de Educación Superior de Ensenada (CICESE), the Centro de Investigación y de Estudios Avanzados del Instituto Politécnico Nacional (Cinvestav), and the Universidad de Guadalajara (UAG).
Leonardo Lomeli Vanegas, Rector of UNAM, said the cluster creates an opportunity to expand access to computing resources through mechanisms based on scientific merit and expected research impact. According to Lomeli, this approach could help reduce disparities in access to advanced research infrastructure across institutions. The government's strategy draws on existing assets rather than building a centralized computing facility from scratch.
A distributed network with four pillars
The cluster will function as a national network of high-performance computing nodes distributed across participating institutions. Hector Benitez Perez, Director General of Computing and Information and Communication Technologies at UNAM and coordinator of the initiative, identified four foundational pillars: governance and ethics, telecommunications and cybersecurity, processing and storage infrastructure, and research and collaboration. The project also targets workforce development, technical training, and connectivity improvements.
These pillars extend the initiative beyond hardware to include operational frameworks for managing data, securing infrastructure, and coordinating institutional participation. The network is designed to support projects that need significant computational power, including AI for Science & Research applications and large-scale data analysis.
Coatlicue and future research programs
A central component of the strategy is integration with Coatlicue, the national supercomputer project that federal authorities highlighted during the announcement. Government officials have not yet disclosed a complete operational roadmap for Coatlicue, but they position it as a strategic asset within Mexico's broader scientific infrastructure agenda.
Luis Antonio Salazar Olivo, Director General of the Instituto Potosino de Investigación Científica y Tecnológica, said high-performance computing is increasingly necessary for processing large volumes of data tied to national challenges. The combination of distributed institutional resources and a national supercomputing platform could give researchers computational capabilities for AI training, climate modeling, health research, engineering simulations, and large-scale data analytics.
Sovereignty and talent development
Federal officials framed the initiative as part of a broader effort to strengthen Mexico's scientific and technological sovereignty. Ruiz said science remains an international and collaborative activity, emphasizing that strengthening domestic capabilities does not imply reducing international cooperation. The objective is to increase Mexico's ability to contribute to global scientific networks while maintaining stronger national infrastructure and expertise.
Gustavo Pacheco Lopez, Rector of UAM, said the country needs additional high-performance computing capabilities to address complex challenges and support technological sovereignty. Participating institutions plan to expand training opportunities for researchers, engineers, technicians, and specialists working in artificial intelligence and advanced computing fields. Celina Peña Guzman, Deputy Minister for Technological Development, Linkage and Innovation at SECIHTI, described the initiative as a bridge connecting infrastructure, expertise, and human capital already present across the country.
Why this matters for science and research professionals
For researchers and engineers working in data-intensive fields, the cluster signals a structural shift in how Mexico allocates advanced computing resources. Instead of competing for isolated institutional systems, research teams can expect a coordinated framework for accessing high-performance computing nodes across multiple universities and centers. As governance and resource-allocation procedures are defined, the initiative could directly shape which projects get compute time and how cross-institutional collaborations are prioritized - factors that affect grant competitiveness, publication timelines, and the scope of computational experiments available to Mexican researchers.
Your membership also unlocks:
