Eli Lilly and Co. CEO David Ricks, speaking at the annual BioCrossroads Life Sciences Summit, called the state’s power supply a limiting factor as the company seeks to build the pharmaceutical industry’s largest supercomputer in Indianapolis.
“We’re only constrained by power, by the way,” Ricks said as an aside during a panel discussion, “so if the government’s here, we can use a little more power.”
The comment drew laughs from the crowd of about 300 gathered at Elanco Animal Health’s downtown headquarters Thursday morning.
Ricks was part of a discussion on the theme of “One Health”—the concept of tying together advancements in human, plant and animal health—with Purdue University President Mung Chiang, Indiana University President Pamela Whitten, Corteva Agriscience CEO Chuck Magro and Elanco CEO Jeff Simmons.
The new supercomputer, announced last month, will use more than 1,000 Nvidia B300 GPUs—specialized processors called graphics processing units—designed for AI, machine learning and crunching massive amounts of data at high speeds. During the panel, Ricks referred to it as “the world’s largest chemistry-focused supercomputer.”
Speaking to reporters after the panel discussion, Ricks said Indiana utility companies, industrial consumers and government need to work together on a long-term plan for the state.
“There’s no version of the next five years where we don’t need a lot more power,” he said, “and if we want to grow our industrial base, that’s what’s required.”
He said a recently announced plan for First American Nuclear to build small modular reactors, or SMRs, in Indiana was progress, but added: “Most people would say we need all of the above, and that may not be fast enough to keep up. So, gas is an important resource and renewable.”
Ricks added that power supply is a factor in where Lilly builds new multi-billion manufacturing facilities, with recent U.S. facilities planned for Virginia and Texas. Lilly plans to announce two more U.S. sites late this year or early 2026.
University lab upgrades needed
During the panel, Ricks also praised the state’s universities for producing top research and talent but called on IU and Purdue to upgrade their facilities, a need both university presidents echoed.
“Chemistry labs at both my parent universities need updating, frankly,” said Ricks, who holds degrees from IU and Purdue and is a member of the latter’s board of trustees. “It is one of those disciplines that the first question any recruit will ask is, show me the space (where) I’m going to do the work.
“I think, academically, we need to upgrade.”
Purdue’s Chiang agreed that updating labs is key to continued growth.
“There are great talents already, but we need to hire more of them. Where’s the bottleneck?” Chiang asked during the panel. “As Dave highlighted just now, often it is the research facilities on our campuses. We need to catch up on that.”
After the panel, Chiang pointed to $1.5 billion invested and 27 construction projects either ending or starting last year at Purdue. But he added: “When it comes to particularly advanced chemistry research labs, we need to update our research facilities.”
IU’s Whitten, speaking to reporters, pointed to the continued challenge of upgrading facilities while also noting support the university has received from state leaders.
“We’re behind the eight ball in terms of keeping pace with the need for our faculty, for sophisticated research labs,” Whitten acknowledged. “We’re also getting some help. As we’re building IU Indianapolis, for example, the state was very generous and gave us $60 million that’s being used to build a STEM building.”
Construction began on the 52,000-square-foot addition to the Science and Engineering Lab building near North Blackford and West New York streets in April. The new space will feature state-of-the-art laboratory and research spaces, as well as a 3-D bioprinter lab and support for development of wearable devices and sensors and health-monitoring systems. It will also feature optics labs, advanced computational and wet labs. Construction is expected to be complete before the beginning of the 2026-27 academic year.
Ricks’ comments come as Lilly’s financial strength and clout of have never been higher and as the company is aggressively expanding to keep up with demand for blockbuster weight-loss medications Zepbound and Mounjaro as well as ramping up for the expected launch of its GLP-1 pill, orforglipron.
This week, Lilly’s share price reached all-time highs and crossed the $1,000-per-share mark on Wednesday. Shares were up slightly, to around $1,029 each, as of Thursday morning.