The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), in collaboration with Argonne National Laboratory, NVIDIA, and Oracle, has announced a new partnership to build the DOE’s largest artificial intelligence (AI) supercomputer. This initiative aims to accelerate scientific discovery by providing advanced AI computing resources to researchers.
Under this partnership, two next-generation AI supercomputing systems will be developed at Argonne National Laboratory. The first system, Solstice, will utilize 100,000 NVIDIA Blackwell GPUs and become the largest AI supercomputer within the DOE laboratory network. The second system, Equinox, will feature 10,000 NVIDIA Blackwell GPUs. Construction for Equinox is set to begin immediately at the Argonne Leadership Computing Facility and is expected to be operational in 2026. Both systems will connect with DOE’s network of scientific instruments and data assets to address challenges related to energy, security, and scientific research.
Oracle will also provide immediate access for DOE researchers to AI computing resources that use both NVIDIA Hopper and Blackwell architectures. Scientists from Argonne and other institutions nationwide will benefit from these 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.”
Clay Magouyrk, CEO of Oracle added: “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 commented: “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.”
According to DOE officials involved in this partnership model—where government shares investments in computing power with private industry—the goal is not only rapid deployment but also ensuring U.S. leadership in artificial intelligence research.
The new supercomputers are intended for developing advanced models using tools like NVIDIA Megatron-Core software as well as scaling them via TensorRT inference software stacks—supporting agentic AI workflows necessary for open science initiatives.
This three-phase project includes immediate access via Oracle-provided resources followed by delivery phases for Equinox then Solstice at Argonne; all aimed at reducing timeframes from idea generation through discovery by leveraging expertise across public laboratories alongside private sector advancements.
