AMD and the US Department of Energy have announced two new high-performance computing systems at Oak Ridge National Labouratory aimed at advancing the United States' artificial intelligence and science infrastructure.
The two systems, named Lux AI and Discovery, will be deployed over the next several years, with the stated goal of positioning the United States at the forefront of artificial intelligence (AI) enabled scientific research and national security.
Supercomputing for AI and science
The Lux AI supercomputer is a result of a collaboration between Oak Ridge National Labouratory (ORNL), AMD, Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE), and Oracle Cloud Infrastructure. It will be powered by AMD Instinct MI355X GPUs, AMD EPYC CPUs, and AMD Pensando networking technologies. Deployment is scheduled within the next six months, aiming to complement and expand the Department of Energy's AI research capabilities.
The Discovery system is designed to shore up the ties among the DOE, ORNL, HPE, and AMD, and will feature next-generation AMD Instinct MI430X GPUs and AMD EPYC CPUs codenamed "Venice." Its deployment is intended to accelerate work on what is described as the American AI stack, giving national researchers access to advanced processing power and secure infrastructure.
Both Lux and Discovery are part of a USD $1 billion joint investment between the private and public sectors, intended to bolster the US's ability to provide secure, federated, standards-based resources for AI research and development.
Statements from partners
"We are proud and honored to partner with the Department of Energy and Oak Ridge National Labouratory to accelerate America's foundation for science and innovation," said Dr. Lisa Su, Chair and CEO, AMD. "Discovery and Lux will leverage AMD's high-performance and AI computing technologies to advance the most critical U.S. research priorities in science, energy, and medicine - demonstrating the power of public-private partnership at their best."
United States Secretary of Energy Chris Wright emphasised the new approach to public-private partnerships. "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. That's why the Trump administration is announcing the first example of a new commonsense approach to computing partnerships with Lux. We are also announcing, as part of a competitive procurement process, Discovery. Working with AMD and HPE, we're bringing new capacity online faster than ever before, turning shared innovation into national strength, and proving that America leads when private-public partners build together."
Stephen Streiffer, Director of Oak Ridge National Labouratory, commented on the scientific impact: "The Discovery system will drive scientific innovation faster and farther than ever before. ORNL's leadership in supercomputing has dramatically shortened researchers' time from problem to solution across a host of fields and industries. With Discovery, the integration of high-performance computing and AI promises breakthroughs at the accelerated speed and scale necessary for continued U.S. leadership in an increasingly competitive global environment."
Antonio Neri, President and CEO at HPE, stated: "We are proud that the partnership between HPE and AMD is at the forefront of advancing the next generation of supercomputing in the AI era for Oak Ridge National Labouratory. HPE's newest supercomputing solutions harness converged AI and HPC architectures, enabling the lab to achieve unprecedented productivity and scale. This collaboration also reinforces American leadership in applying AI to science, energy and national security."
Mahesh Thiagarajan, Executive Vice President at Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, added: "Oracle is honored to work alongside the Department of Energy to help drive breakthroughs in science, energy, and national security. Oracle will deliver sovereign, high-performance AI infrastructure that will support the co-development of the Lux AI cluster."
Lux: a national AI factory
Lux, described as the nation's first dedicated AI Factory for scientific, energy, and national security research, is purpose-built to train, fine-tune, and deploy AI foundation models. According to materials released by the Department of Energy and its partners, Lux is designed to be a critical resource, accelerating discovery in areas such as energy research, materials science, medicine, and advanced manufacturing.
The system architecture of Lux is optimised for high-throughput, data-intensive workloads, aiming to give the United States a decisive advantage as larger, more complex AI models are developed and deployed for scientific use. The partners anticipate that Lux will deliver benefits not only in basic research but also in support of national security and biosecurity.
Discovery: scaling for the future
The Discovery supercomputer, which is planned for deployment at ORNL in 2028 with user operations expected in 2029, builds on the existing Frontier system. Its architecture features high memory capacity and network bandwidth, which are designed to exceed previous exascale machines. The computer is intended to further simplify the transition for applications developed for previous systems by maintaining a consistent programming environment.
Discovery is designed to deliver increased performance and energy efficiency, targeting significant breakthroughs in domains such as advanced materials, battery technology, critical materials, and manufacturing innovation. Once operational, Discovery will become a key system supporting the American AI technology infrastructure for the following decade.
The development and deployment of both systems are seen as part of a public and private commitment to reinforce the US's position in AI and scientific innovation globally, with a focus on open standards and sovereignty over AI capabilities and data.
