Former Nvidia Worker Makes Big Mathematical Find

A researcher who used to work as a programmer for Nvidia has found the largest known prime number—and if he printed it out, it would be as long as 26 Bibles. The number—2 to the 136,279,841st power minus 1—contains 41,024,320 decimal digits, beating the record set in 2018 by more than 16 million digits, LiveScience reports. It's one of a rare class of prime numbers called Mersenne primes. Luke Durant found the number with free software provided by the Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search, aka GIMPS. The 36-year-old, who retired from Nvidia in 2021, spent around $2 million of his own money on the search, the Washington Post reports.

Durant used graphics processing units, which he helped develop at Nvidia, in the search. He used the power of under-utilized GPUs in 24 data centers spread across 17 countries. The discovery "ends the 28 year reign of ordinary PCs finding the largest known prime," according to GIMPS. "Luke decided that finding a new Mersenne prime would be a great demonstration that GPUs can be used for more than AI," GIMPS said. "GPUs are well suited to fundamental math and science research as well." Durant, one of thousands of GIMPS volunteers, tells the Post that he also wanted to show that people working together can solve massive problems.

The number, known as M136279841, is the 52nd Mersenne prime number to be discovered. The previous 18 were also found by the GIMPS project, which began in 1996, Smithsonian reports. There's no known practical use for the giant prime numbers. Co-founder George Woltman describes the project as "entertainment for math nerds." Jacob Hoffman-Andrews at the Electronic Frontier Foundation likens the search to building test cars. "It won't help you get the milk home any faster, but it's fun and impressive and occasionally provides insights into how to build faster vehicles," he tells the Post. Durant plans to donate his $3,000 prize for the find to the Alabama School of Math and Science, the public boarding school he attended before studying at CalTech. (More prime number stories.)