The U.S. Department of Energy and the National Nuclear Security Administration have announced new partnerships to develop advanced supercomputing systems aimed at strengthening national security, AI and scientific research.

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Enhancing Scientific Discovery With HPE, NVIDIA

DOE said the Los Alamos National Laboratory is collaborating with HPE and NVIDIA to develop and deploy the Mission and Vision supercomputers. These should advance the modeling and simulation capabilities that support national security research, basic scientific discovery and AI applications throughout the NNSA nuclear enterprise.

The two supercomputers are being developed under the DOE’s $370 million program to accelerate scientific breakthroughs. The systems will utilize the new HPE Cray Supercomputing GX5000 with direct liquid cooling and incorporate the NVIDIA Vera Rubin Superchips.

What are Mission & Vision Supercomputers?

The Mission supercomputer aims to bolster advanced simulation and computing. It will enable scientists to evaluate and modernize nuclear security without nuclear testing and ensure a secure and reliable stockpile. It is designed to be four times faster than LANL’s Crossroads system and will offer advanced AI, modeling and simulation to bolster NNSA national security programs.

Vision will build on the success of the HPE-built Venado supercomputer, expanding NNSA’s AI capabilities—including foundational and agentic models—to fast-track research in national security, energy and scientific fields. The system is intended to advance LANL’s computational power for AI-driven research.

What are Solstice & Equinox Supercomputers?

The DOE’s Argonne National Laboratory partnered with NVIDIA and Oracle to build the Solstice and Equinox supercomputers. Solstice, with 100,000 NVIDIA Blackwell GPUs, is the largest AI supercomputer in the DOE complex. Equinox, expected to be completed in 2026, will have 10,000 GPUs. These systems will integrate with DOE’s scientific instruments and data networks to tackle critical energy, security, and discovery science challenges.

The Information Technology Industry Council has submitted detailed recommendations to the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy calling for a coordinated federal framework to accelerate U.S. leadership in AI. The association said overlapping regulations and inconsistent federal guidance are slowing AI innovation and urged the administration to align policy, workforce and acquisition reforms with the pace of technology.

With calls growing for cohesive federal AI standards and modernization across agencies, Potomac Officers Club’s Artificial Intelligence Summit on March 19 will convene top voices from government and industry to explore how unified policy, infrastructure and data strategies can sustain America’s global AI edge. Reserve your seat to hear directly from the leaders guiding federal AI transformation.

What Are ITI’s Key Concerns?

In its response to OSTP’s request for information on AI regulatory reform, ITI cited conflicting federal rules, outdated privacy and copyright frameworks, and fragmented state-level AI laws as significant obstacles. The group warned that more than 1,000 state bills introduced in 2025 have created “regulatory fragmentation” and rising compliance costs. ITI urged the administration to work with Congress to establish a unified, risk-based federal AI standard that preempts state regulations and provides clarity for industry.

How Should AI Regulation Be Updated?

ITI recommended modernizing outdated federal policies that do not reflect AI’s current capabilities. The group identified gaps in data access and use, privacy enforcement, intellectual property protection, and medical device approval and reimbursement processes. It also called on agencies to revisit older AI-related rules, such as voluntary AI commitments under the Biden administration and outdated model risk management guidance, to ensure consistency with the Trump administration’s AI Action Plan.

What Broader Reforms Does ITI Propose?

Beyond regulatory changes, ITI said policy reform must be matched with modernization of federal infrastructure, data systems and procurement practices. The group urged investment in AI workforce training, streamlined acquisition under the Federal Acquisition Regulation overhaul and faster pathways for approving commercial AI tools. It also called for updates to cybersecurity and authorization frameworks, such as the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program and the Department of Defense’s Risk Management Framework, to keep pace with AI systems.

Why a Unified Federal Approach Matters

According to ITI Vice President of Policy Courtney Lang, aligning policies and regulations is critical to achieving the administration’s AI goals. “To meet the ambitious goals outlined in President Trump’s AI Action Plan, policymakers must ensure that U.S. policy and regulation is effective, clear, and flexible enough to account for AI and other emerging technologies,” Lang said.

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office is seeking a new chief artificial intelligence officer, or CAIO, to lead enterprisewide adoption of AI and machine learning.

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According to a notice posted on USAJobs, the CAIO will serve as the principal adviser to the chief information officer and deputy CIO, focusing on delivering business value through AI and machine learning implementation.

USPTO will accept applications through Nov. 25.

What Are the Responsibilities of the USPTO CAIO?

The CAIO will bring hands-on technical expertise and leadership in areas such as natural language processing, expert systems, image processing, evolutionary computation, robotic process automation and deep neural networks.

Key responsibilities include training and validating datasets; implementing AI, ML and RPA platforms; developing feedback learning loops and refining behavioral capabilities based on end-user interactions.

The officer will also turn high-impact business use cases into actionable AI technology roadmaps and lead strategy engagements with mission-critical business units. It will provide leadership on the reporting, analysis, technology, risk management and governance recommendations to accelerate integration and adoption of AI tools across the enterprise and collaborate with DevSecOps teams to design and implement innovative tech platforms.

Jerry Ma on the USPTO Chief AI Officer Role

Jerry Ma, who stepped down as USPTO’s first CAIO and director of emerging technology in May, shared his perspective on the position in a LinkedIn post.

“The USPTO is now hiring for its second-ever Chief AI Officer, and there exists no better agency for a civic-minded AI leader to jump in and start delivering. You will work at the crossroads of technology, policy, and public-sector innovation to support our nation in ensuring American leadership in AI for years and decades to come,” Ma, now vice president of global affairs and deputy chief technology officer at Perplexity, said of the role.

The Department of Energy has announced a public-private partnership with Advanced Micro Devices and Hewlett Packard Enterprise to develop two AI supercomputers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

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Backed by more than $1 billion in public-private investment, the initiative aims to strengthen U.S. leadership in scientific computing, drive innovation and strengthen national security capabilities, DOE said Monday.

The department expects the supercomputers to facilitate the integration of experimentation and modeling and improve its ability to move data securely across sites.

What Is the Lux AI Cluster?

One of the planned AI supercomputers is the Lux AI Cluster, which is scheduled for deployment in early 2026.

Equipped with AMD Instinct MI355X graphics processing units, AMD EPYC central processing units and AMD Pensando networking, Lux will support work on fusion, fission, quantum computing, materials discovery, grid modernization, advanced manufacturing and other critical national priorities. It will provide an open AI software stack to boost the country’s innovation base.

“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 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.”

How Will the Discovery Supercomputer Accelerate Scientific Research?

Set to arrive in 2028, the Discovery supercomputer will be based on the HPE Cray Supercomputing GX5000 architecture and will feature AMD EPYC “Venice” processors and AMD Instinct MI430X GPUs.

Discovery aims to converge AI, high-performance computing and quantum systems to enable scientists to speed up data processing and analysis and train AI models to accelerate scientific breakthroughs in medicine, cybersecurity, energy and advanced manufacturing.

“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,” Wright noted.