University of Florida and Nvidia establish a $70 million partnership to build the fastest AI supercomputer in academia.

The University of Florida and NVIDIA unveiled a plan Tuesday to build the world's fastest AI supercomputer in academia, delivering 700 petaflops of AI performance. The effort is anchored by a $50 million gift: $25 million from alumnus and NVIDIA co-founder Chris Malachowsky and $25 million in hardware, software, training and services from NVIDIA. The University of Florida will invest an additional $20 million to create an AI-centric supercomputing and data center, bringing the total public-private partnership to $70 million and positioning UF as one of the leading AI universities in the country.

The supercomputer will enhance UF's existing system, HiPerGator, with the recently announced NVIDIA DGX SuperPOD architecture. UF's HiPerGator 3 will integrate 140 NVIDIA DGX A100 systems powered by a combined 1,120 NVIDIA A100 Tensor Core GPUs, with 4 petabytes of high-performance storage and an NVIDIA Mellanox HDR 200Gb/s InfiniBand network providing high throughput and extremely low-latency network connectivity. The system is expected to be up and running by early 2021. UF is the first institution of higher learning in the U.S. to receive NVIDIA DGX A100 systems, which are already used by eight of the ten top US national universities.

The partnership promises to advance academic research and help address major challenges including rising seas, aging populations, data security, personalized medicine, urban transportation and food insecurity. UF expects to create 30,000 AI-enabled graduates by 2030 and has committed to fill 100 new faculty positions in AI and related fields, making it one of the top AI universities in the country. This supplements the 500 recently hired faculty across disciplines, many of whom will weave AI into their teaching and research. The region serves as a "living laboratory for some of society's biggest challenges," as Malachowsky noted, particularly relevant to a state with more than 1,300 miles of coastline facing challenges from rising sea levels and other environmental concerns.

NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang, who founded NVIDIA in 1993 along with Malachowsky and Curtis Priem, emphasized the broader scope of the effort: "The partnership here with the UF, the state of Florida, and NVIDIA, anchored by Chris' generous donation, goes beyond just money. We are excited to contribute NVIDIA's expertise to work together to make UF a national leader in AI and help address not only the region's, but the nation's challenges." Malachowsky, who holds a BSEE from the University of Florida and an MSCS from Santa Clara University, has authored close to 40 patents and was inducted into the Florida Inventors Hall of Fame. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis characterized the initiative as significant for retaining talent in the state: "As we look to keep our best talent in state, this will be a significant carrot, you'll also see people around the country want to come to Florida." University of Florida President Kent Fuchs stated the institution's aspirational goal: "Our vision is to become the nation's first AI university."