The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has announced a new partnership with Argonne National Laboratory, NVIDIA, and Oracle to develop the largest AI supercomputer in the department’s lab system. This initiative is intended to provide DOE researchers with advanced computing resources and accelerate scientific progress.
The project will deliver two major AI supercomputing systems at Argonne National Laboratory. The first, named Solstice, will include 100,000 NVIDIA Blackwell GPUs and will be the largest AI supercomputer in the DOE complex. The second system, Equinox, will feature 10,000 NVIDIA Blackwell GPUs. Construction on Equinox at the Argonne Leadership Computing Facility is set to begin immediately and delivery is expected in 2026. These systems are designed to integrate with DOE’s network of scientific instruments and data assets to address national challenges in energy, security, and discovery science.
Oracle will also provide immediate access for DOE researchers to AI computing resources using both NVIDIA Hopper and Blackwell architectures. Scientists from Argonne and other institutions across the country will benefit from these new capabilities aimed at advancing technology for science and energy applications.
U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright said: “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 stated: “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.”
DOE has previously engaged in public-private partnerships that have established U.S. leadership in supercomputing over several decades. According to officials involved in this project, this collaboration reflects a new model that enables joint investment between government agencies and private industry.
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 at 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.”
Both Equinox and Solstice are expected not only to help scientists train large-scale models using tools like NVIDIA Megatron-Core but also support open science initiatives by providing robust computational infrastructure.
This partnership aims for rapid deployment by combining immediate access via Oracle-provided resources with future delivery of state-of-the-art hardware at Argonne National Laboratory.
