US Department of Energy and AMD to deploy two AI supercomputers

The Department of Energy (DOE) announced two AMD-accelerated supercomputers, Lux and Discovery, at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) under a new public-private model, totaling more than $1 billion.

Supercomputer Lux is targeted for early 2026, and Discovery is expected to arrive in 2028, in a DOE announcement.

Lux AI Supercomputer will use AMD Instinct MI355X GPUs, EPYC CPUs, and Pensando advanced networking technologies, and will be co-developed with HPE and Oracle Cloud Infrastructure ORNL, and AMD.

Discovery will be an HPE system powered by next-generation AMD EPYC “Venice” CPUs and Instinct MI430X GPUs, with a “Bandwidth Everywhere” design for AI and science workloads.

DOE framed the systems as expanding U.S. leadership in AI, scientific computing, and national security, while AMD said the partnership will advance U.S. research priorities in science, energy, and medicine.

Both Lux and Discovery are meant to accelerate work on priority areas, including fusion, fission, materials discovery, quantum, advanced manufacturing, and grid modernization.