The NSF unveils the State and Regional AI Infrastructure Hubs, a $100 million initiative designed to broaden access to compute, data, and AI resources for researchers, students, and educators across regions to accelerate AI-enabled scientific discovery.

The program forms regional consortia spanning state and local governments, academia, industry, philanthropy, and NSF, with NSF providing catalytic support for coordination, workforce development, and curriculum building.

Hubs are envisioned to integrate with NAIRR and TechAccess: AI-Ready America to advance workforce development and align with the Genesis Mission for AI in science.

NVIDIA and other partners will contribute resources and guidance, including training materials, educator enablement, and platform support, building on prior UF-NVIDIA collaborations and the NAIRR pilot.

The initiative builds on earlier efforts like the NAIRR pilot, which delivered cloud-based AI resources to researchers and supported hundreds of projects, including molecular modeling.

Private-sector and philanthropic partners, including NVIDIA, AMD, Intel, Dell Technologies, Hangar, and the Secunda Innovation Fund, are expected to support participants, with openness to additional organizations.

Regional design freedom is emphasized: hubs may use on-premises, cloud, or mixed architectures, with NSF handling coordination while regions manage hardware and operations.

Prospective proposers should consult NSF solicitation 26-513; the first cohort will set regional groupings and compute architectures, with ongoing emphasis on workforce development and education.

The program seeks to expand access to AI compute, data, and resources to address uneven infrastructure and support researchers, students, and educators nationwide.

The initiative aligns with White House science policy and FY 2028 R&D priorities, emphasizing AI for science, expanded compute and data infrastructure, and renewed investment in America’s R&D enterprise.

Each hub will represent a state or region, with one award per region, pooling university, government, philanthropic, and industry resources to broaden AI-enabled research outside traditional hubs.

Overall, the program aims to build regional ecosystems, expand workforce capabilities, and accelerate AI-enabled research in support of the national AI in science mission.