Nvidia showcased its full-stack artificial intelligence ambitions in Washington D.C. today, releasing new supercomputing systems, telecommunications partnerships, and industrial collaboration projects, extending its influence from national laboratories to factory floors. At the GTC DC event, the company announced significant initiatives covering quantum computing, 6G networks, and the construction of “AI Factories” in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Energy and Oracle, which executives described as part of the next industrial and scientific renaissance in the United States.
Driving the Scale-Up of Next-Generation AI
Oracle and the U.S. Department of Energy are collaborating with Nvidia to build two large-scale AI factories. The first site, named “Equinox,” will support 10,000 graphics processing units, while the subsequent “Solstice” phase will deliver 2200 petaflops of AI performance. The company also revealed that Los Alamos National Laboratory will deploy two next-generation supercomputers based on the Nvidia Vera Rubin platform, named “Mission” and “Vision,” dedicated to national security and open scientific research respectively.
To further advance AI factory construction, Nvidia released Omniverse DSX, a blueprint for gigawatt-scale AI campuses. This technology uses the company’s Omniverse platform, providing developers and engineers with a “metaverse” simulation environment for visualizing 3D models and large projects. These simulations can interact and react with the physical laws of the real world, allowing engineers to build and test anything imaginable. “Partners can use as much or as little resource as they need,” said Dion Harris, Senior Director of High-Performance Computing, Cloud, and AI Infrastructure Solutions at Nvidia. “DSX establishes a common architecture for AI factories ranging from 100 megawatts to multiple gigawatts.”
The new blueprint expands on Nvidia’s existing work, providing digital twins or virtual copies for top-tier AI factories. Leveraging these simulation-ready blueprints gives AI companies a head start in designing and building next-generation AI data centers. Additionally, Nvidia introduced BlueField-4, the next generation of its Data Processing Unit, designed to accelerate and offload data center infrastructure tasks such as networking, storage, and security. It will provide 800 gigabits per second of throughput for AI data centers, with computing power six times greater than the previous generation.
Expanding Communications and Industrial Partnerships
The latest news reported that Nvidia announced an AI-native wireless protocol stack built on its Aerial platform, targeting the upcoming 6G standard. According to the company, AI is now a core component of the 6G wireless standard, representing a significant advancement over 5G, with expected speeds up to 1000 times faster. It will offer lower latency, utilize higher frequencies, and employ AI to enable new capabilities. The Nvidia Aerial RAN Compute Professional (ARC Pro) will be used to build new telecommunications products for 5G and 6G network deployments. T-Mobile and Nokia are partnering with Nvidia to implement the latest technology into their networks. With this release, operators will be able to upgrade from 5G to 6G via software alone when the time is right.
Siemens has expanded its collaboration with Nvidia, introducing a new suite of services to Omniverse with libraries for building advanced factory digital twins. This will enable companies to build “born-digital” factories that are autonomous from the start, connected to AI models and agents driving intelligent robots. Nvidia also announced a global partnership with Uber Technologies to deploy a global fleet of robotaxis. “We will deploy over 100,000 robotaxis globally in the coming years,” said Kari Briski, Vice President of Generative AI Software at Nvidia.
Ushering in the Quantum Era
To help build the upcoming era of quantum computing, Nvidia launched NVQLink, the world’s first quantum interconnect technology, which will provide systems capable of performing quantum error correction at high speeds and large scales. “Every supercomputer will rely on a quantum processor to expand the range of problems it can compute, and every quantum processor will rely on a supercomputer to run correctly,” said Tim Costa, General Manager of Industrial Engineering and Quantum at Nvidia. “The GPU acts as the brain coordinating the quantum hardware.” Costa stated that NVQLink is a universal open architecture co-developed with 17 quantum hardware companies, aimed at integrating GPUs and Quantum Computing Processing Units in hybrid supercomputers. Quantum computing has the potential to solve complex problems currently beyond the reach of even the most powerful classical computers. It could lead to breakthroughs in fields like medicine, materials science, and artificial intelligence.
However, quantum computers face issues with errors caused by the slightest fluctuations in the environment, including changes in temperature, magnetic fields, and even cosmic rays. To address this, specialized software running on classical computers monitors and corrects these errors. Quantum computing companies, including Quantum Circuits Inc. and Alice & Bob SAS, announced partnerships with Nvidia using NVQLink. “This release is a clear signal that fault-tolerant quantum computers, like Alice & Bob’s quantum processors, are nearing industrial maturity,” said Jérémie Guillaud, Vice President of Firmware at Alice & Bob.
