NVIDIA, OpenAI among 11 firms pledging $2.4B for Genesis Mission
What's the story
Eleven leading tech firms, including NVIDIA and OpenAI, have pledged $2.4 billion in compute credits to support the Genesis Mission initiative. The announcement was made at the White House's AI Science Summit on Thursday. The event was organized as part of a larger $6 billion push to drive US-led scientific research and technological innovation using artificial intelligence (AI) and other emerging technologies.
Corporate contributions
Major contributions from tech giants
The tech giants have pledged their contributions to the Genesis Mission Consortium.
The White House said these credits will be used to support "over 15 Federal agencies working toward National Science & Technology Challenges."
Among the major contributors are NVIDIA with $1 billion, AMD with $500 million, and OpenAI with $200 million.
Anthropic and Google each pledged $150 million, while AMP and Emerald AI committed $100 million each.
Industry response
AWS highlights the role of computing in scientific breakthroughs
David Appel, the interim VP of Worldwide Public Sector at AWS, emphasized the importance of computing power in scientific breakthroughs.
He said American scientists are on the cusp of breakthroughs that will define the next century.
These include from accelerating biomedical research and improving health outcomes, to AI-driven drug discovery.
Funding initiatives
Federal agencies ramp up efforts for scientific discovery
Along with the corporate contributions, federal agencies have also announced new funding opportunities, programs, and partnerships to further drive scientific discovery.
The Pentagon has taken steps to align with the White House effort by creating an enterprise-wide framework to assess and improve its labs and research centers.
It has also announced up to $350 million for quantum computing initiatives for national security purposes.
Project awards
Energy Department announces new funding opportunities
On the same day, the Energy Department announced $159 million in new phase II Genesis Mission project awards and $96 million for early-career researchers.
It also launched a new graduate fellowship program and an initiative to advance the development of fault-tolerant quantum computers.
These moves are part of a broader strategy to promote scientific research and technological innovation in the US.
Medals
Trump awards Big Tech executives with nation's highest science prizes
During the summit, US President Donald Trump also presented the National Medal of Technology and Innovation and the National Medal of Science to six prominent tech executives.
Among the recipients was SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, who led the cost-cutting Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) early in Trump's second term.
Other notable names were NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang, Google co-founder Sergey Brin, AMD CEO Lisa Su, Dell Technologies CEO Michael Dell, and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella.