DOE and Dell Unveil 'Doudna' Supercomputer to Boost US AI and Science Leadership
US Secretary of Energy Chris Wright announced a groundbreaking contract with Dell Technologies for the development of NERSC-10, the next-generation flagship supercomputer at the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC), located at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab).
Set to be operational by 2026, the new supercomputer will be named after Jennifer Doudna, the Berkeley Lab biochemist and 2020 Nobel Prize winner for Chemistry, celebrated for her pioneering work in gene-editing technology through CRISPR.
The Doudna supercomputer, powered by Dell Technologies and built on NVIDIA’s Vera Rubin platform, will be engineered to handle large-scale high-performance computing (HPC) tasks, such as molecular dynamics simulations, high-energy physics calculations, and AI training and inference. The system will also provide a robust environment for supporting workflows crucial to groundbreaking scientific research across various disciplines.
Also read: US DOE to Boost AI Development by Co-Locating Data Centers on Federal Land
A New Era in Scientific Innovation
This announcement aligns with the Trump Administration’s efforts to bolster American leadership in science and technology.
With its exceptional computational capabilities, the Doudna supercomputer is poised to propel the US into a new era of discovery, advancing both AI and high-performance computing (HPC) technologies, ensuring the nation’s dominance in these critical fields.
US Secretary of Energy Chris Wright, said, “The Doudna system represents DOE’s commitment to advancing American leadership in science, AI, and high-performance computing.”
He added, “It will be a powerhouse for rapid innovation that will transform our efforts to develop abundant, affordable energy supplies and advance breakthroughs in quantum computing. AI is the Manhattan Project of our time, and Doudna will help ensure America’s scientists have the tools they need to win the global race for AI dominance.”
The Doudna supercomputer is set to accelerate a wide range of scientific workflows, supporting 11,000 users from the DOE’s experimental and observational facilities across the country.
