A New Era of AI Supercomputing
The U.S. government is making a massive bet on AI-powered scientific computing.
In a joint announcement Thursday, Energy Secretary Chris Wright and AMD CEO Lisa Su unveiled a $1 billion partnership to construct two supercomputers — Lux and Discovery — designed to push the boundaries of what’s computationally possible in nuclear research, defense technology, and drug development.
“These systems will supercharge America’s innovation capacity,” Wright said, noting that the initiative is critical for maintaining U.S. leadership in science, national security, and advanced energy.
The Systems: Lux and Discovery
The first system, Lux, will be operational within six months and powered by AMD’s MI355X AI chips, alongside the company’s high-performance CPUs and networking components.
Developed collaboratively by AMD, Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE), Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, and Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Lux is expected to deliver three times the AI capacity of today’s top-tier supercomputers.
The second, more advanced system, Discovery, will use AMD’s forthcoming MI430 AI processors, optimized for high-performance computing and deep learning. Discovery is expected to be delivered in 2028 and fully operational by 2029.
While performance metrics have not yet been disclosed, ORNL Director Stephen Streiffer said Discovery would deliver “enormous gains” in computational power, surpassing any existing AI system in scale and efficiency.
Applications: From Fusion Energy to Cancer Research
The DOE emphasized that these systems are not just technological milestones — they are national priorities.
Both Lux and Discovery will be used to:
- Accelerate fusion energy research, helping scientists model plasma reactions to replicate the energy of the sun here on Earth.
- Simulate and manage the U.S. nuclear arsenal, ensuring safety and modernization without live testing.
- Advance drug discovery and cancer treatments, modeling interactions at the molecular level to identify new therapies.
The Strategic Stakes
The partnership underscores the growing convergence of AI, national security, and energy innovation — and marks a significant win for AMD in the race against rivals Nvidia (NVDA) and Intel (INTC) to dominate the high-performance computing landscape.
The Department of Energy will host the systems, while AMD and its partners will provide hardware, capital investment, and technical resources. Both sides will share access to the computing power — a model that the DOE says could become the blueprint for future public-private AI infrastructure partnerships.
A DOE official noted that the Lux and Discovery systems are expected to be the first of many such projects between U.S. national labs and private industry.
WSA Take
The DOE–AMD partnership is more than a hardware deal — it’s a strategic play for technological sovereignty.
By anchoring AI supercomputing infrastructure within the U.S., Washington is signaling that AI and energy research are now national security priorities. And for AMD, it’s validation of its growing relevance in the AI arms race — moving beyond gaming and consumer chips into the heart of government-backed innovation.
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