REQUEST FOR INFORMATION (RFI) ON OPPORTUNITIES AND BUSINESS MODELS REGARDING AI SUPERCOMPUTING CAPABILITY AT ARGONNE NATIONAL LABORATORY

Argonne National Laboratory (Argonne) seeks information from academia, industry, nonprofit organizations, and other interested parties regarding opportunities to participate in the development and use of a National Genesis Mission Supercomputing Center of Innovation. The center will include AI supercomputing resources and be located on Argonne property.

Argonne is advancing efforts to strengthen U.S. leadership in artificial intelligence (AI), accelerate scientific discovery and engineering innovation, and enable secure, scalable computing infrastructure aligned with national priorities.  Argonne is evaluating approaches to implement AI infrastructure that can support research, development, demonstration, and mission-focused applications through public-private collaboration. Argonne, as a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) national laboratory with established capabilities in high-performance computing, AI, data science, secure computing, and user facility operations, is well positioned to host such a capability.

Through this RFI, Argonne seeks input in two areas:

Computing and infrastructure capabilities—opportunities for organizations to provide equipment, software, services, test beds, infrastructure elements, or other capabilities that support an initial deployment and/or future phases of expansion, technology refresh, or modernization of a National Genesis Mission Supercomputing Center of Innovation that includes AI resources; and

Use, co-funding, and partnership interest—input from organizations interested in using, supporting, funding, reserving capacity from, or otherwise partnering around a portion of AI supercomputing resources within the center through research, education, co-funded public-private partnership, sponsored access, or other arrangements.

Argonne is specifically interested in models that leverage substantial private-sector investment, with the expectation that much of the infrastructure associated with the center of innovation would be financed through private, non-Federal sources rather than taxpayer funding.

This RFI is issued for information-gathering and planning purposes only. It does not constitute a funding opportunity announcement, request for proposals, or other solicitation, and does not commit Argonne to any award, agreement, or other action.

Argonne welcomes responses from a broad range of stakeholders, including:

• Universities, university consortia, and nonprofit research institutions;
• Industry stakeholders (such as Energy & Utilities, Materials & Chemicals, Industrials & Manufacturing, Automotive & Transportation, Health Care & Life Sciences, Agriculture & Food Processing);
• Large businesses, small businesses, and emerging technology firms; and
• Organizations (including entities not listed above) interested in sponsored research, shared infrastructure, or public-private partnership models.