The U.S. National Science Foundation has awarded $20 million to the Georgia Institute of Technology to lead the development of Nexus, a powerful new supercomputer designed to accelerate artificial intelligence research and drive scientific discovery across the United States, as reported by the Forbes.Developed in partnership with the National Center for Supercomputing Applications at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign — home to some of the nation’s most advanced academic supercomputers — Nexus will form the backbone of a new high-speed network connecting top research institutions. The initiative aims to create a shared national infrastructure, giving scientists and engineers across the country access to advanced computational resources. U.S.-based researchers will be able to apply for NSF funding to use the system for approved projects.

Once complete, Nexus will offer unprecedented computational power. Georgia Tech reports that the system will be capable of performing 400 quadrillion operations per second, equivalent to every person on Earth carrying out 50 million calculations every second. With vast memory and flash storage—described as enough to fill a stack of paper stretching from Earth to the Moon and partway back—Nexus will be equipped to handle the growing data demands of modern science.

“Georgia Tech is proud to be one of the nation’s leading sources of the AI talent and technologies that are powering a revolution in our economy,” said Georgia Tech President Ángel Cabrera. “It’s fitting we’ve been selected to host this new supercomputer, which will support a new wave of AI-centered innovation across the nation. We’re grateful to the NSF, and we are excited to get to work.”

Georgia Tech will manage Nexus and provide user support, with up to 10% of the system’s capacity reserved for research on its own campus. The rest will be available to the broader academic community through competitive access programs.

“This award positions Georgia Tech and our partners at the forefront of AI-powered science,” said Raheem Beyah, dean of Georgia Tech’s College of Engineering. “Nexus will be a national resource that opens the door to discoveries we can’t yet imagine.”

Construction is expected to begin later this year, with full deployment targeted for 2026.