The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), in partnership with Argonne National Laboratory, NVIDIA, and Oracle, has announced a new collaboration to build the largest AI supercomputer in the DOE’s laboratory system. The agreement aims to provide immediate access to advanced AI computing resources for DOE researchers and to construct two next-generation AI supercomputers at Argonne National Laboratory.
The Solstice system will feature 100,000 NVIDIA Blackwell GPUs, making it the largest AI supercomputer within the DOE lab network. A second system, Equinox, will include 10,000 NVIDIA Blackwell GPUs. Construction on Equinox at the Argonne Leadership Computing Facility is set to begin immediately, with delivery expected in 2026. These systems are intended to connect with existing DOE scientific instruments and data assets to address national challenges related to energy, security, and scientific discovery.
Oracle will also provide immediate access for DOE scientists to AI computing resources using both NVIDIA Hopper and Blackwell architectures. This move is designed to enhance technological capabilities for science and energy research across the country.
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.”
DOE officials emphasized that this partnership continues a tradition of public-private collaborations that have kept America at the forefront of supercomputing for decades. The current model allows shared investments between government agencies and industry partners so that new supercomputers can be brought online more quickly.
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.”
Both Equinox and Solstice are expected not only to support development in open science but also help train large-scale models using tools like NVIDIA Megatron-Core along with inference software stacks such as TensorRT.
This partnership combines immediate access via Oracle-provided resources with rapid deployment timelines for Equinox and Solstice at Argonne National Laboratory—intended ultimately to reduce time from idea generation through discovery by leveraging expertise from both government labs and private sector companies.
