The world's largest prime number has been discovered, but we can't show it because it's so large it would take up 21 standard-sized novels to turn into text. Called M136279841, its shorthand version is 2136,279,841-1. That comes to 41,024,320 digits.
If you remember your math lessons from school, a prime number is any number that can only be evenly divided by itself or 1. It's one of the most basic concepts in mathematics and how they work has produced some of the most profound questions in the field, such as is there a pattern inside prime numbers? How are they distributed? What about the sum of two primes, or primes that form palindromes that read the same forward and backwards?
If this seems too esoteric, prime numbers are used every time someone uses the internet. Modern encryption techniques are based on equations with two solutions, each of which produces a prime number – one that can be used to encrypt data and the other to decrypt it.
The new largest prime number was discovered by Luke Durant of San Jose, California, who is an amateur researcher and former NVIDIA employee, on October 11, 2024 and confirmed by independent computation on October 12. However, Durant didn't use a pencil and paper – a lot of paper, like 11,000 sheets just to write out the results, which fill up a 39.9 MB text file.
Instead, he was one of a number of volunteers who have downloaded free software to do the number crunching as part of the Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search (GIMPS) that's been running since 1996. Today, the search is essentially a giant cloud supercomputer that is based on thousands of server GPUs, spanning 24 data center regions over 17 countries.
GPUs are an important key to the search because these graphic processors have proven to be extremely good at dealing with more than digital images. In recent years, they've become key to Large Language Model AIs and for the complex calculations involving prime numbers. In this case, it's a class called Mersenne primes, which can be expressed by the formula Mn = 2n - 1, where M is the prime number and n is an integer. These have been central to number theory since the days of Euclid in Ancient Greece.
According to the GIMP organization, The new prime is 16 million digits larger than the previous record prime number and the 52nd known Mersenne prime ever discovered. As the primes become larger, they become increasingly difficult to find. The new record holder was found on an NVIDIA A100 GPU server running in Dublin, Ireland and confirmed in San Antonio, Texas, netting Durant a prize of US$3,000, which he is donating to charity.
Finding Prime Numbers
The hunt for Mersenne primes is a global effort, with thousands of volunteers dedicating their computer power to the search. The discovery of a new Mersenne prime is a significant event, and this recent discovery is a testament to the power of crowdsourced computing and the dedication of amateur mathematicians.
The Importance of Prime Numbers
While finding these primes is challenging, it's not just a mathematical puzzle. Prime numbers play a crucial role in modern encryption, which is vital for protecting sensitive information online. The discovery of larger prime numbers allows for more robust encryption algorithms, making it harder for hackers to break into secure systems.
What This Means for the Future
The fact that a former NVIDIA employee discovered the world’s biggest known prime number using a custom-built “cloud supercomputer” of graphics processing units isn’t simply a neat math fact. It speaks to the rising power of cloud computing in general, particularly the rise of GPUs in scientific research. As GPUs become even more powerful, we can expect to see more discoveries like this, pushing the boundaries of our understanding of numbers and their potential applications.
