The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Argonne National Laboratory, NVIDIA, and Oracle have announced a new public-private partnership aimed at building the largest AI supercomputer within the DOE’s laboratory system. The initiative is designed to provide advanced computing resources for scientific research and to accelerate technological innovation.
Under this partnership, two major AI supercomputing systems will be constructed at Argonne National Laboratory. The first system, named Solstice, will feature 100,000 NVIDIA Blackwell GPUs and is set to become the largest AI supercomputer in the DOE network. The second system, Equinox, will include 10,000 NVIDIA Blackwell GPUs. Construction on Equinox is scheduled to begin immediately at the Argonne Leadership Computing Facility with delivery expected in 2026.
In addition to building these new systems, Oracle will provide immediate access to AI computing resources that utilize both NVIDIA Hopper and Blackwell architectures. This access aims to support scientists from Argonne and other institutions across the United States by offering new capabilities for science and energy applications.
U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright stated: “Winning the AI race requires new and creative partnerships that will bring together the brightest minds and industries American technology and science has to offer. The two Argonne systems and the collaboration between the Department of Energy, NVIDIA, and Oracle represent a new commonsense approach to computing partnerships. These systems will be a powerhouse for scientific and technological innovation. Thanks to President Trump, we’re bringing new computing capacity online faster than ever before and turning shared innovation into national strength.”
Jensen Huang, founder and CEO of NVIDIA said: “AI is the most powerful technology of our time, and science is its greatest frontier. Together with the Department of Energy and Oracle, we’re building an AI factory that will serve as America’s engine for discovery, giving researchers access to the most advanced AI infrastructure to drive progress across fields ranging from healthcare research to materials.”
The DOE emphasized its history of public-private collaborations in supercomputing leadership over several decades. According to officials involved in this latest project, it represents a model where government agencies share investments with industry partners—allowing for faster deployment of high-performance computing resources.
Clay Magouyrk, CEO of Oracle commented: “At Oracle, we are proud to partner with the Department of Energy to deliver sovereign, high-performance AI capabilities. Our collaboration at Argonne, tapping into the power of OCI, will provide a critical resource to address the nation’s most complex challenges and accelerate the next wave of scientific breakthroughs.”
Paul Kearns, director of Argonne National Laboratory added: “The Equinox and Solstice systems are designed to accelerate a broad set of scientific AI workflows, and we are collaborating with Oracle and NVIDIA to prepare thousands of researchers to effectively leverage the systems’ groundbreaking capabilities. This system will seamlessly connect to forefront DOE experimental facilities such as our Advanced Photon Source, allowing scientists to address some of the nation’s most pressing challenges through scientific discovery.”
These upcoming supercomputers are expected not only to enhance open science but also enable researchers nationwide in developing advanced models using software like NVIDIA Megatron-Core alongside inference tools such as TensorRT.
DOE officials believe that by combining federal research expertise with private sector advancements in artificial intelligence hardware—researchers can reduce development times from concept stage through discovery—thus supporting continued U.S leadership in global artificial intelligence initiatives.
