US Department of Energy Forms $1 Billion Supercomputer and AI Partnership With AMD (reuters.com) 23
The U.S. has formed a $1 billion partnership with AMD to construct two supercomputers that will tackle large scientific problems ranging from nuclear power to cancer treatments to national security, said Energy Secretary Chris Wright and AMD CEO Lisa Su. From a report: The U.S. is building the two machines to ensure the country has enough supercomputers to run increasingly complex experiments that require harnessing enormous amounts of data-crunching capability. The machines can accelerate the process of making scientific discoveries in areas the U.S. is focused on.
Energy Secretary Wright said the systems would "supercharge" advances in nuclear power and fusion energy, technologies for defense and national security, and the development of drugs. Scientists and companies are trying to replicate fusion, the reaction that fuels the sun, by jamming light atoms in a plasma gas under intense heat and pressure to release massive amounts of energy. "We've made great progress, but plasmas are unstable, and we need to recreate the center of the sun on Earth," Wright told Reuters.
Energy Secretary Wright said the systems would "supercharge" advances in nuclear power and fusion energy, technologies for defense and national security, and the development of drugs. Scientists and companies are trying to replicate fusion, the reaction that fuels the sun, by jamming light atoms in a plasma gas under intense heat and pressure to release massive amounts of energy. "We've made great progress, but plasmas are unstable, and we need to recreate the center of the sun on Earth," Wright told Reuters.
Nice (Score:3)
It's amazing that someone is around to sign any industry fatcat deals while the government is shutdown and unable to pay federal workers.
Hooray for oligarchy (Score:3)
Medicare Telehealth is cancelled for most patients during the shutdown, which has my disabled mother scrambling to find new in-person appointments. It's rather difficult for her to travel, and the paratransit service makes her wait in the cold weather for pickups (she has COPD, edema, reoccurring kidney infection)
But hey, as long as incompetent morons fill the seats in D.C. and the oligarchy is happy we can tell everyone that is struggling how bigly the numbers are of our AI bubble economy.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Amazing that the party currently controlling all 3 branches of the government can't find a way to keep it running. In one day they could end the filibuster and even vote to take away grandpa's keys to the tariff tirade. But they're all massive pussies who dare not anger dear leader.
What about Intel (Score:3, Interesting)
Re: (Score:3)
AMD must have given him a bigger golden trinket.
Re: (Score:3)
Surprising that the deal was made with AMD when the U.S. government has an equity stake in Intel.
It's not surprising at all. If you even skim Project 2025 and then look at the tenets of Technocracy, you'll discover that the plan is to turn Big Business into Government. Using taxpayer money to buy into - AKA 'fund' - multiple businesses in key sectors is a logical first step.
The explicit end goal is to dispense with democracy altogether and implement techno-feudalism as the universal mode of governance. When you realize that, all the shit that's been going on in the US since Trump took over makes so muc
Not a team sport? (Score:2)
Surprising that the deal was made with AMD when the U.S. government has an equity stake in Intel.
Maybe the US wants both companies to prosper?
Not everything is a team sport...
Re: (Score:2)
Surprising that the deal was made with AMD when the U.S. government has an equity stake in Intel.
Supercomputers are dependent on GPUs and have been for more than a decade. Aurora used Intel GPUs, but Intel has since been undependable with producing state of the art GPUs. Meanwhile, Nvidia has mostly ceded the US government supercomputer market to AMD since 2018 instead focusing on European governments and US corporations. Nvidia used to dominate the US government supercomputer market until the price of GPUs rose too much for the US government's liking. Nvidia balked at lowering their prices and lef
Should have been a grant (Score:2)
I remember when someone promised smaller government.. Instead of it being a grant it is now something the government will staff and bloat. I'm sure it will fall woefully behind schedule and cost 10X the original price. Maybe we could even put another TV personality in charge of this department.
Re: (Score:2)
Okay, but are you a libertarian? Is it your desire that the government shrinks?
The Venn diagram describing the intersection of "libertarian" and "wants smaller government" is nowhere near to being a single circle.
Who will study the data? (Score:2)
Who is there doing the leg work to get this approved? Depending on how long Republicans keep the government shut down, who will do the installation and configuration? They can't pay contractors to do this since there is no approved money.
Re: (Score:2)
The National Nuclear Security Administration just furloughed 80% of its workforce [federalnewsnetwork.com] due to Republicans shutting down the government. Who is there doing the leg work to get this approved? Depending on how long Republicans keep the government shut down, who will do the installation and configuration? They can't pay contractors to do this since there is no approved money.
Congress no longer controls the purse. I mean, technically, they're supposed to. But the current President has been behaving as if he controls the purse, and congress are so craven and empty that they've yet to even make a feather against the wind level of protest over it. So, in effect, their power over the purse is over. In fact, I'm pretty sure this government shut-down is a lead-in to "Congress doesn't act anyway, there's no purpose to them existing," executive order somewhere down the line. The power-g
Betting the Company (Score:2)
What's AMD to do when the gov't refuses to pay a 1 billion dollar bill on the whims of a fickle leader? Might not be worth the risk. Safer to have many smaller clients than one uber-honker that can sink the whole ship.
That chucklehead (Score:1)
Yet they funded AMD's Competitors? (Score:2)
As opposed to the current ones? (Score:2)
We already have multiple supercomputers. I, personally, got to walk around BioWulf, at the NIH.
Suckers! (Score:2)
What suckers!
I'd have built them an AI system to answer the same questions for a tenth the cost!
[and then escaped with $99M while the machine made up answers .. . .]