Japan is reportedly planning to build a 130-petaflops supercomputer costing $173 million (£131 million) that is due for completion next year.

Satoshi Sekiguchi, a director-general at Japan's ‎National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, where the computer will be built, told Reuters: "As far as we know, there is nothing out there that is as fast."

According to the Top 500 site listing the world's fastest computers, the current number-crunching champ is China's 93-petaflops Sunway TaihuLight, followed by its Tianhe-2, coming in at 34 petaflops. Japan's most powerful system at the moment is a 13.5 petaflops machine. Overall, Japan has the fourth-largest number of supercomputers in the Top 500 listing, after the US, China, and Germany.

The UK comes in sixth; the most powerful system in the country is housed at the Met Office, and has a max performance of 6.8 petaflops.

Like 498 out of the top 500 systems, Japan's 27 supercomputers in the Top 500 list all run Linux, and it is highly likely the new system will do so as well. It is not yet known who will construct the system for the Japanese government—bidding for the project is open until December 8.

Japan's new machine will be used in the field of Artificial Intelligence, which explains its rather boring name: "AI Bridging Cloud Infrastructure," or ABCI. Sekiguchi told Reuters that the system will also be used to "tap medical records to develop new services and applications."

Apparently the plan is to allow Japan's corporations to book time on the supercomputer for a fee, thus freeing them from the need to use the services of US companies like Google and Microsoft.

The investment in the massive system is part of a wider move to boost Japan's standing in the world of technology. In recent years, it has been rather overshadowed by developments in South Korea and China.

Even though Japan hopes to leap to the top of the supercomputer league table with the new ABCI, China is doubtless constructing more powerful machines that may yet deprive Japan of that honour.