The U.S. Department of Energy has partnered with Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) in a $1 billion initiative to construct two next-generation supercomputers aimed at accelerating scientific discoveries in areas ranging from nuclear power and fusion energy to cancer treatment and national security.
Energy Secretary Chris Wright and AMD CEO Lisa Su announced the project, emphasizing that the supercomputers will provide the computational power necessary for increasingly complex experiments. “We’re going to get just massively faster progress using the computation from these AI systems that I believe will have practical pathways to harness fusion energy in the next two or three years,” Wright said. He added that the machines will also help manage the U.S. nuclear arsenal and simulate molecular-level drug interactions to advance cancer therapies.
The first system, named Lux, is expected to come online within six months. It will use AMD’s MI355X artificial intelligence chips alongside central processors and networking chips made by AMD, and is being co-developed with Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, and Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). ORNL Director Stephen Streiffer said Lux will deliver roughly three times the AI capacity of current supercomputers.
The second, more advanced system, Discovery, will be based on AMD’s MI430 AI chips, optimized for high-performance computing, and is scheduled for delivery in 2028 with operational readiness in 2029. Su described the MI430 as a hybrid chip combining traditional supercomputing features with AI capabilities, designed to push the boundaries of computational power.
Both supercomputers will be hosted by the Department of Energy, with the companies providing the machines and capital investment, while computing resources will be shared between public and private stakeholders. Officials indicated that these projects are intended to serve as the first of many such partnerships between DOE laboratories and private industry, aiming to accelerate U.S. scientific and technological innovation.
Wright also underscored the potential societal impact, predicting that within five to eight years, these computational advances could help transform many forms of cancer into manageable conditions. Su highlighted the unprecedented speed of the Lux deployment, calling it the fastest of its size she has seen and a demonstration of U.S. agility in AI and supercomputing.
