The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), in collaboration with Argonne National Laboratory, NVIDIA, and Oracle, has announced a new public-private partnership aimed at advancing artificial intelligence (AI) supercomputing capabilities. The initiative will provide DOE researchers with access to advanced AI computing resources and establish two major AI supercomputing systems at Argonne National Laboratory, which is affiliated with the University of Chicago.
The project involves building two systems named Solstice and Equinox. Solstice will be equipped with 100,000 NVIDIA Blackwell GPUs, making it the largest AI supercomputer within the DOE laboratory network. Equinox will have 10,000 NVIDIA Blackwell GPUs, with construction set to begin immediately and delivery expected in 2026. These systems are designed to connect seamlessly with the DOE’s scientific instruments and data assets to address challenges in energy, security, and discovery science.
Oracle will also provide immediate access to AI computing resources that use both NVIDIA Hopper and Blackwell architectures. This arrangement aims to offer scientists from Argonne and across the United States new AI capabilities for research in science and energy applications.
“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,” said U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright. “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, commented: “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 health care research to materials.”
DOE officials highlighted that this partnership builds on decades-long public-private collaborations that have maintained American leadership in supercomputing. The current model enables shared investments between government agencies and private industry partners such as NVIDIA and Oracle.
“At Oracle, we are proud to partner with the Department of Energy to deliver sovereign, high-performance AI capabilities,” said Clay Magouyrk, CEO of Oracle. “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 stated: “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 new supercomputers aim not only at advancing open science but also at supporting agentic AI workflows using tools like NVIDIA Megatron-Core for model development along with TensorRT inference software stacks.
In addition to these projects, Argonne is deploying three more AI computing platforms—Minerva (in partnership with World Wide Technology [WWT] and NVIDIA), Janus (with HPE and NVIDIA), and Tara (with NVIDIA). Minerva focuses on accelerating AI inference processes; Janus supports workforce development in artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing; Tara aims at integrating exascale computation advances into scientific breakthroughs.
Rick Stevens—a professor at University of Chicago's Department of Computer Science who also serves as associate laboratory director for Computing Environment & Life Sciences at Argonne—explained: “Modern science isn’t just about having powerful computers anymore—it’s also about having powerful AI capabilities… Inference allows us streamline how we test hypotheses design experiments gain insights from large complex datasets.”
All five upcoming systems are expected reduce time required move ideas discoveries by combining expertise from national laboratories private sector innovations frontier-level infrastructure.
Further information about these initiatives can be found on Argonne’s website.