The National Science Foundation (NSF) announced on Wednesday a new partnership with Voltage Park in support of the agency’s National Artificial Intelligence Research Resource (NAIRR) pilot.
The NAIRR serves as a shared national infrastructure to support the AI research community and power responsible AI use. NSF launched the NAIRR pilot in January 2024.
Voltage Park – a company that is focused on making enterprise-grade AI infrastructure accessible to all – will contribute high-performance cloud computing resources and expert support for the NAIRR pilot.
Specifically, the company will provide one million NVIDIA H100 GPU hours as part of the partnership. The Voltage Park team will work closely with the NAIRR pilot team to match researchers with the most appropriate AI resources, allowing them to make the most of their allotted computing time.
“Voltage Park’s participation significantly strengthens our ability to deliver on the promise of the NAIRR pilot,” said Brian Stone, who performing the duties of the NSF director. “By partnering with visionary private sector organizations like Voltage Park, we are expanding the frontiers of AI research and ensuring that the US continues to lead in AI innovation.”
???“Expanding access to advanced computing is not just a technical initiative – it’s a strategic priority,” added Ozan Kaya, CEO of Voltage Park. “By lowering the barriers to high-performance AI infrastructure, we can unlock innovation from a more diverse and representative set of researchers. That inclusivity is what drives truly impactful AI – and strengthens our national edge in the global innovation landscape.”
The NAIRR is a two-year pilot project “designed to inform the development of a full-scale national infrastructure,” NSF said. The pilot brings together 12 Federal agencies and now 27 partners from the private sector, nonprofit, and philanthropic communities.
Members of Congress have previously introduced legislation to make the NAIRR permanent, including the Creating Resources for Every American To Experiment with AI Act (CREATE AI Act).
The bill was first introduced in 2023, but Reps. Jay Obernolte, R-Calif., and Don Beyer, D-Va., reintroduced the CREATE AI Act this year.
Rep. Obernolte, the only member of Congress with a graduate-level degree in AI, said earlier this year that he is “really optimistic” about Congress’s ability to pass the CREATE AI Act this year.