The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has announced the deployment of two new artificial intelligence (AI) supercomputers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). These systems, named Lux and Discovery, are part of an initiative to expand the United States’ capabilities in scientific computing and national security.
Lux, scheduled for deployment in early 2026, will be powered by AMD Instinct MI355X GPUs, AMD EPYC CPUs, and AMD Pensando networking technology. It will be built using a new public-private partnership model that allows for co-investment from both DOE and private partners. This approach is expected to reduce the time required to deploy new supercomputers from years to months. The system aims to enhance AI capacity for research in areas such as fusion, fission, materials discovery, quantum science, advanced manufacturing, and grid modernization.
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. 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: “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.”
Discovery will follow under a traditional procurement model as an HPE system using next-generation AMD processors and accelerators. Expected in 2028, Discovery is projected to exceed the performance of Frontier—currently one of the world’s largest supercomputers—and will integrate high-performance computing with AI and quantum technologies through HPE Cray Supercomputing GX5000 hardware.
Antonio Neri, president and CEO of HPE said: “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.”
ORNL Laboratory Director Stephen Streiffer added: “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.”
Both Lux and Discovery are designed to improve secure data movement across sites within DOE facilities while supporting rapid solutions for key national priorities such as medicine development, energy research, cybersecurity advancements, advanced manufacturing techniques—and overall American prosperity through technological innovation.
With more than $1 billion invested jointly by public entities like DOE alongside private sector partners including AMD and HPE—the project reflects ongoing efforts by federal agencies to foster technological progress through collaborative models.
