The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) announced Tuesday its Los Alamos National Laboratory selected tech companies Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) and NVIDIA to develop and deploy two new supercomputers.
The two computers, named “Mission” and “Vision,” will be used for modeling and simulations at the lab.
“Mission” will be used to assist NNSA research without the need to conduct a critical nuclear test. It will do so using years of stockpile research from the above-ground testing of nuclear weapons prior to the 1992 self-imposed moratorium. “Vision” will use artificial intelligence (AI) to also accelerate research at the lab.
President Donald Trump’s reconciliation bill for 2025, or the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, provides NNSA with $115 million for AI ventures in national security, an NNSA release emailed to the Exchange Monitor said.
“NNSA has a proud history of applying science and technology to national security challenges. The next generation of NNSA supercomputers marks a significant milestone in ensuring America’s leadership in the global AI race,” NNSA Administrator Brandon Williams said in the release. “Mission and Vision will incorporate cutting-edge capabilities that will drive analysis and predictions crucial for effective, safe, and reliable national security.”
According to the release, DOE is home to the world’s top ten fastest supercomputers. NVIDIA and HPE have also played a part of building NNSA’s other supercomputers: NVIDIA powered the GPUs, or the large electronic circuits that perform multiple calculations for larger scale operations in AI and machine learning, for the Sierra supercomputer at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, and HPE helped build the El Capitan supercomputer also at Lawrence Livermore.
HPE also announced in a release Monday that it is building two supercomputer systems for Oak Ridge National Laboratory: the “Discovery” as the successor to the “Frontier” supercomputer, and “Lux,” an AI cluster that will act as an online cloud platform for training.
“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,” U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright said in the DOE’s press release. “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.”