NSF and NVIDIA partner to develop open AI models for U.S. science

Published 14/08/2025, 20:34
© Reuters.

Investing.com -- The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) has announced a partnership with NVIDIA to develop artificial intelligence models aimed at advancing scientific discovery and maintaining U.S. leadership in AI-powered research.

The collaboration will see NSF contribute $75 million and NVIDIA provide $77 million to support the Open Multimodal AI Infrastructure to Accelerate Science (OMAI) project, led by the Allen Institute for AI (Ai2).

This public-private investment aligns with the White House AI Action Plan to accelerate AI-enabled science and ensure U.S. global AI dominance through leading open models.

"Bringing AI into scientific research has been a game changer," said Brian Stone, performing the duties of the NSF director. "These investments are not just about enabling innovation; they are about securing U.S. global leadership in science and technology and tackling challenges once thought impossible."

The initiative addresses the growing cost barrier of creating powerful AI models, which has exceeded the budgets of university labs and federally funded researchers. This financial divide has limited academic exploration despite researchers’ historical role in pioneering foundational AI breakthroughs.

Ai2 will create open-source, multimodal large language models trained on scientific data and literature. These tools will help researchers process research faster, generate code and visualizations, and connect new insights to past discoveries across fields including materials science, biology, and energy.

"AI is the engine of modern science — and large, open models for America’s researchers will ignite the next industrial revolution," said Jensen Huang, founder and CEO of NVIDIA. "We’re accelerating innovation with state-of-the-art infrastructure that empowers U.S. scientists to generate limitless intelligence, making it America’s most powerful and renewable resource."

The NSF funding comes through its Mid-Scale Research Infrastructure program. The project will also support workforce training to expand AI expertise beyond traditional tech hubs.

Initial applications will focus on accelerating new materials discovery, improving protein function prediction for biomedical advancements, and addressing weaknesses in current large language models.

"Fully-open AI is not just a preference — it’s a necessity," said Ali Farhadi, CEO of Ai2. "For the U.S. to continue leading the next era of scientific and technological discovery, we must create open, collaborative ecosystems where millions of researchers and developers can work together."

The funding will also support research teams from the University of Washington, the University of Hawaii at Hilo, the University of New Hampshire, and the University of New Mexico.

This article was generated with the support of AI and reviewed by an editor. For more information see our T&C.

Latest comments

Risk Disclosure: Trading in financial instruments and/or cryptocurrencies involves high risks including the risk of losing some, or all, of your investment amount, and may not be suitable for all investors. Prices of cryptocurrencies are extremely volatile and may be affected by external factors such as financial, regulatory or political events. Trading on margin increases the financial risks.
Before deciding to trade in financial instrument or cryptocurrencies you should be fully informed of the risks and costs associated with trading the financial markets, carefully consider your investment objectives, level of experience, and risk appetite, and seek professional advice where needed.
Fusion Media would like to remind you that the data contained in this website is not necessarily real-time nor accurate. The data and prices on the website are not necessarily provided by any market or exchange, but may be provided by market makers, and so prices may not be accurate and may differ from the actual price at any given market, meaning prices are indicative and not appropriate for trading purposes. Fusion Media and any provider of the data contained in this website will not accept liability for any loss or damage as a result of your trading, or your reliance on the information contained within this website.
It is prohibited to use, store, reproduce, display, modify, transmit or distribute the data contained in this website without the explicit prior written permission of Fusion Media and/or the data provider. All intellectual property rights are reserved by the providers and/or the exchange providing the data contained in this website.
Fusion Media may be compensated by the advertisers that appear on the website, based on your interaction with the advertisements or advertisers
© 2007-2025 - Fusion Media Limited. All Rights Reserved.