AMD partners with U.S. Department of Energy in a $1 billion supercomputer deal
The U.S. Department of Energy has entered into a $1 billion partnership with Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) to construct two supercomputers. The supercomputers’ primary purpose is to solve large-scale scientific problems, ranging from nuclear power to cancer treatments to national security.
Energy Secretary Wright said the systems would “supercharge” advances in nuclear power and fusion energy, as well as technologies for defense and national security, and the development of new drugs.
“We’ve made great progress, but plasmas are unstable, and we need to recreate the center of the sun on Earth,” Wright told Reuters.
Lux, the first supercomputer in this project, is co-developed by AMD, Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE), Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, and Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and is expected to be built and to come online within the next six months. It will be based on AMD’s MI355X artificial intelligence chips, as well as CPUs and networking chips also made by AMD.
ORNL, HPE, and AMD will build the second, more advanced computer, called Discovery, based on AMD’s MI430 series of AI chips. Discovery is expected to be ready for use in 2029.
According to the Department of Energy, it will host the computers, while companies will provide the machines and capital expenditures, and both parties will share the computing power.
Following the news, AMD stock rose, closing 2.67% higher at $259.67.
These are not the only big moves AMD has made lately, however.
