The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has announced plans to deploy two new supercomputers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), both powered by AMD technology. The initiative introduces a new public-private partnership model designed to accelerate the deployment of advanced computing systems and bolster American competitiveness in science and technology.
The first system, known as Lux, will be equipped with AMD Instinct MI355X GPUs, AMD EPYC CPUs, and AMD Pensando networking. Scheduled for deployment in early 2026, Lux aims to expand DOE’s AI capabilities and support research on key national priorities such as fusion energy, materials discovery, quantum computing, advanced manufacturing, and modernization of the power grid. The partnership model allows for joint investment from DOE and private sector partners, reducing the typical setup time for supercomputers from years to months.
“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,” said U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright. “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.”
AMD chair and CEO Dr. Lisa Su commented on the collaboration: “We are proud and honored to partner with the U.S. Department of Energy and Secretary Wright to accelerate America’s AI compute infrastructure. This partnership exemplifies public-private collaboration at its best. With Discovery and Lux, we are delivering leadership compute systems that combine performance and energy efficiency to advance America’s research priorities and strengthen U.S. leadership in AI, energy, and national security.”
The second supercomputer system is called Discovery—a Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) machine featuring next-generation AMD processors—which is expected to be operational in 2028. Discovery is anticipated to surpass Frontier (currently located at ORNL) in performance metrics by integrating high-performance computing with artificial intelligence (AI) and quantum technologies.
Antonio Neri, president and CEO of HPE stated: “We are proud to build on our strong U.S. public-private partnership with the Department of Energy, Oak Ridge National Laboratory and AMD that first began when we debuted the Frontier exascale supercomputer and broke a significant computing speed barrier… Together, we will continue to strengthen U.S. national leadership in the era of AI and accelerate scientific breakthroughs and innovation with Discovery and Lux.”
According to ORNL Laboratory Director Stephen Streiffer: “The Discovery system will drive scientific innovation faster and farther than ever before… Oak Ridge’s leadership in supercomputing has transformed how researchers solve problems. With Discovery and Lux, we’re accelerating the pace of Gold Standard Science at a scale that secures America’s leadership in an increasingly competitive world.”
With more than $1 billion invested through this collaboration among DOE, AMD, HPE—and guided by federal support—the project seeks not only technological advancement but also improved security measures for data transfer between sites as well as enhanced integration between modeling efforts.
Lux is expected to deliver a secure software stack supporting open access while improving overall efficiency within American research infrastructure; meanwhile Discovery’s performance could reduce scientific discovery cycles from years down to weeks across fields such as medicine or cybersecurity.
This announcement reflects DOE’s ongoing strategy toward rapid innovation via shared resources between government agencies like itself—tasked with maintaining national energy interests—and major industry players specializing in hardware development.
