AI NEWSLETTER APRIL 2026

Welcome to our monthly newsletter dedicated to everything AI.

Here you'll find a roundup of the latest developments from the world of artificial intelligence - new GPU-accelerated systems, partnerships and collaborations, AI breakthroughs, experimental techniques and more. This month's hot topics include:

• Highlights of the NVIDIA GTC show 2026
• Intel Xeon 6 processors chosen for new NVIDIA systems
• New groundbreaking research published from ESL 2025
• Arm becomes a silicon provider
• Introducing the Unitree As2
• AI events for your calendar
• Scan NVIDIA DLI course schedule

Let's get into it.

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE NVIDIA GTC SHOW 2026

NVIDIA used this year's GTC show in San Jose to demonstrate a wide range of exciting new hardware and software, and the Scan team was on hand to cover all the latest developments. The main highlight was the ultra-powerful DGX Station GB300, a desktop-sized system with more than five times the processing power of the DGX Spark. On that note, NVIDIA also announced a way to now link four Sparks together in a cluster so you can pool the memory and run larger models.

Other demos included a first look at the upcoming generative AI-powered game rendering of DLSS 5, the new RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell mid-range datacentre GPU, further details on the Inference Context Memory Storage Platform announced this year, and more insight into NVIDIA’s next-gen Vera CPU. NVIDIA also revealed it’ll be introducing LPUs this year, offloading inferencing work from the CPU and GPU in forthcoming Vera Rubin systems. Finally, NVIDIA announced NemoClaw, a plugin for the popular AI agent OpenClaw.

Read our in-depth coverage of NVIDIA GTC 2026 for further details.

INTEL XEON 6 PROCESSORS CHOSEN FOR NEW NVIDIA SYSTEMS

Also at GTC, it was announced that Intel’s Xeon 6 processors are the host CPUs for the upcoming NVIDIA DGX Run NVL8 supercomputer, following their use in the DGX B300 and DGX B200 systems. As organisations continue to deploy AI systems, inference is increasingly defined not only by GPU throughput but also by CPU-led system performance, with the host CPU shaping overall cluster efficiency and total cost of ownership. It is also responsible for critical functions such as memory management, task orchestration, and workload distribution, while ensuring the security, reliability, and operational continuity essential to modern AI infrastructure.

Addressing a whole range of AI workloads, 3XS Systems - Scan’s in-house server integrator - also offers Intel Xeon 6 processors, bringing powerful CPU performance alongside a wide variety of NVIDIA GPUs for best-in-class fully customisable AI architecture. View our server configurators to see our range of NVIDIA certified EGX, MGX and HGX systems.

NEW GROUNDBREAKING RESEARCH PUBLISHED FROM ESL 2025

Earth Systems Lab (ESL) by is a public-private partnership with the European Space Agency (ESA) and Trillium Technologies. It applies AI technologies to space science, pushing the frontiers of research, developing new tools to help solve some of the biggest challenges that humanity faces. These include the effects of climate change, predicting space weather, improving disaster response and identifying meteorites that could hold the key to the history of the universe.

The second project published from the 2025 research sprint is STARCOP 2.0 - using AI models onboard satellites to detect atmospheric anomalies, such as methane leaks in factories which are a big contributor to global warming, with a warming potential 84 times that of carbon dioxide. Through innovative use of two satellites the project successfully demonstrated improved methane plume detection using multiple satellite datasets that can be used onboard for future work to reduce detection delays. You can learn more by reading the detailed Case Study.

ARM BECOMES A SILICON PROVIDER

We may be used to seeing Arm cores in many high-end CPUs, including the current Grace and upcoming Vera models from NVIDIA, however Arm has now thrown its hat into the ring with its first dedicated Arm-branded AI CPU. Termed the Arm AGI CPU, it features 136 Neoverse V3 cores with 96 PCIe 6 lanes and CXL support for memory expansion. This latter feature may be key in light of current DRAM supply challenges. Additionally, Arm says that its new CPUs have 12-channel memory at up to DDR5-8800.

Arm states that production will start in the latter half of 2026, so keep an eye out for 3XS Systems servers featuring these new CPUs. You can register your interest if you’d like to be kept abreast of developments.

INTRODUCING THE UNITREE AS2

Building on the success of the A2, B2 and Go2, Unitree Robotics has announced the As2 - a new quadruped robot designed for industrial inspections, heavy payload, and long-range operations in difficult conditions. It is most similar to the current Go2 model but offers up to 5x the payload and double the top speed, coupled with an IP54 ruggedised build and significantly better battery life.

The As2 will be available in Air, Pro, and EDU versions, with the latter two models offering onboard NVIDIA Orin NX GPU, delivering advanced AI features and better programming accessibility via an SDK. Whilst we don’t have an exact availability date as yet, keep an eye on our Unitree Robots page and register your interest to keep informed of the latest developments.

AI EVENTS FOR YOUR CALENDAR

There is a number of key AI-focused events in the UK coming later this year, providing valuable insights into the latest AI innovations and technologies, as well as trusted advice on how to get started with your AI projects. On 10-11th June we have the AI Summit London, at the Tobacco Dock, followed by the AI World Congress at the Great Hall on the 23-24th June. Later in the year is Big Data LDN, on the 23-24 September at Olympia, London.

Look out for Scan at all these events and why not prepare by reading our 7-part AI BLOG that walks you through all the stages of an AI project and helps you choose best practice, avoid pitfalls and achieve maximum ROI.

SCAN NVIDIA DLI COURSE SCHEDULE

The next round of NVIDIA Deep Learning Institute (DLI) courses scheduled for 2026 has been confirmed and is as follows:

• BUILDING TRANSFORMER-BASED NATURAL LANGUAGE PROCESSING APPLICATIONS - 23RD APRIL 2026
• DATA PARALLELISM: HOW TO TRAIN DEEP LEARNING MODELS ON MULTIPLE GPUS - 4TH JUNE 2026

To reserve your place on these course head over to our Education And Training Services.