Sovereign AI programme of United States

United States sovereign AI programme

NAIRR has two systems of 136 and 84 accelerators in operation.

NAIRR, from 2024; also covers CHIPS Act AI Components

operating

A full bar is 30,000 accelerators

Stage	Run by	Accelerators	Count	Chip
In operation	NSF		136	NVIDIA H100
In operation	NSF		84	NVIDIA H100

Funding

Its sources give a headline amount of ~$2.6B and government funding of $30M, also stated as committed. The government’s budget documents state an appropriation of $30 million, 2025 to 2026.

Chips

Accelerators: NVIDIA’s accelerators are in both of its systems that name a vendor.Chip makers’ product pages
Fabrication: TSMC fabricates the Hopper parts that two of its systems name.Chip makers’ product pages
Scrutica’s rating: Scrutica rates the programme’s dependence on NVIDIA hardware high, and on US technology low, on a scale of none, low, medium and high.A qualitative assessment of the programme’s chips, partners and supplier relationships, as none, low, medium or high

Partners

27 partners

20 partners by procurement stage, 4 in the Stargate Project and 3 more named in the programme’s sources.

Selected, 20: Microsoft, NVIDIA, Amazon Web Services, Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, IBM, Meta, Intel, Groq, Cerebras, Hugging Face, Databricks, Palantir, SambaNova Systems, EleutherAI, Allen Institute for AI, Weights & Biases, Omidyar Network, Natcast
Stargate Project, 4: OpenAI, SoftBank Group, Oracle, MGX
Named in sources: NSF, DOE, Amazon

Sources read to 8 Sep 2026.

Sources, 16

NSF’s NAIRR overview and partner contributions.: 7 Apr 2026
NAIRR Pilot programme and research projects.: 28 Mar 2026
Text of H.R.2385, the CREATE AI Act, in the 119th Congress.: 28 Mar 2026
Department of Energy computing resources available through NAIRR.: 28 Mar 2026
NAIRR task force’s January 2023 six-year cost estimate; budget table, printed page 48.: 8 Sep 2026
FY2026 appropriations agreement providing $30M for NAIRR; Congressional Record H265.: 8 Sep 2026
OpenAI’s January 2025 announcement of private Stargate investment in the United States.: 8 Sep 2026
OpenAI’s June 2026 report of the Michigan Stargate groundbreaking.: 8 Sep 2026
Related Digital’s June 2026 account of the Michigan project’s private equity and debt financing.: 8 Sep 2026
NIST’s January 2025 announcement of its agreement with Natcast to operate the NSTC.: 8 Sep 2026
Purdue’s NAIRR access guide identifies Anvil’s A100 and H100 resources.: 8 Sep 2026
Purdue, 22 August 2025: Anvil AI’s 21 servers with four H100 SXM GPUs each.: 8 Sep 2026
SDSC’s Expanse guide: the Expanse AI partition has 34 servers with four H100 GPUs each.: 8 Sep 2026
CSET’s estimate of the pilot’s first six computing resources, including allocation-time limits.: 28 Mar 2026
CNBC reporting on the June 2026 Michigan Stargate groundbreaking.: 14 Jul 2026
Federal Budget IQ’s account of FY2026 CJS appropriations, including $30M for NAIRR.: 28 Mar 2026

How the figures were made

Operating compute / delivered hardware. Reported operational or delivered: 84 NVIDIA H100 SXM (physical hardware); 136 NVIDIA H100 (physical hardware). The stage is assigned from reported hardware status, disbursements and commitments.

NAIRR gives researchers access to university and federal computing facilities, commercial cloud services, and AI tools. The $2.6B figure comes from the task force’s six-year cost estimate; the FY2026 appropriations agreement provides $30M for the pilot. Private Stargate investments and CHIPS semiconductor funding are separate from this research-access programme.

Amounts cover different activities and periods, so they are not added.

A full bar is 30,000 accelerators, the scale of Sovereign AI Programmes. Each system is a bar of its own and no total is printed, since two records can describe one machine. One more hardware record states neither a stage nor a count, so it is not listed.

Caveats, 6

The $30M is FY2026 funding for the NAIRR pilot. The cited appropriations agreement reports no amount paid out, so disbursement is unknown.
The NAIRR task force estimated a six-year cost of approximately $2.6B in January 2023. Comparing one year’s pilot funding with that estimate does not measure completion of the full programme.
CSET estimated 3.77 exaFLOPS for the pilot’s first six computing resources under full hardware utilisation. Researchers receive time-limited allocations on those systems; the estimate is neither dedicated year-round capacity nor a current inventory.
OpenAI’s January 2025 Stargate announcement proposed $500B of private investment over four years in US AI infrastructure. CHIPS funding supports semiconductor manufacturing and research; neither amount is included in NAIRR’s government funding here.
OpenAI reported a 1 June 2026 groundbreaking for The Barn, its 1 GW Stargate campus in Saline, Michigan. Related Digital identifies project financing from private equity and debt.
The 208-GH200 allocation previously attributed to Purdue Anvil is unverified. Purdue’s NAIRR guide identifies A100 and H100 resources.

Evidence, 32 entries

Hardware records

GPU model unverified

United States

Vendor: No vendor recorded

Status: Unverified

Organisation and role

Purdue Anvil attribution unverified

NVIDIA H100 SXM

United States

Vendor: NVIDIA

Count: 84

Status: Operational

Scope: Physical hardware

Organisation and role

NSF (Purdue Anvil)

Source

Anvil AI’s H100 expansion: 21 servers with four GPUs each. Primary source, 22 Aug 2025

NVIDIA H100

United States

Vendor: NVIDIA

Count: 136

Status: Operational

Scope: Physical hardware

Organisation and role

NSF (SDSC Expanse)

Source

Expanse AI’s H100 partition: 34 servers with four GPUs each. Primary source

Funding

Headline amount

United States

~$2.60B

The amount includes an estimate.

Government funding

United States

$30M

The amount is as published.

Committed

United States

$30M

The amount is as published.

Government spending

No paid figure stated in the government’s documents

Congress's explanatory statement for the FY2026 appropriations act provides $30,000,000 for the NAIRR inside NSF's Research and Related Activities account, but no NSF budget document, financial report, audit or USAspending record states an amount spent on the NAIRR; the one dedicated NAIRR award, the Operations Center agreement signed on 31 August 2026, carries a $7,000,000 obligation and no reported outlay through August 2026. Stargate is privately financed and is not government spending.

National Artificial Intelligence Research Resource (NAIRR) Pilot Program, within the National Science Foundation's Research and Related Activities appropriation

A part of the programme. The programme record bundles three things: the NAIRR, 'CHIPS Act AI components' and Stargate. Its own notes count only the NAIRR as government funding (its government-only announced figure is the FY2026 NAIRR amount), state that CHIPS semiconductor funding is separate from this research-access programme, and describe Stargate as private investment. This line is therefore the NAIRR component. The $30,000,000 is not a separate appropriation account: Public Law 119-74 appropriates $7,176,500,000 to NSF Research and Related Activities (available until 30 September 2027), and section 4 of the Act gives the House-printed explanatory statement the effect of a conference statement for the allocation of funds; that statement provides $30,000,000 for the NAIRR. The Act was approved on 23 January 2026, the date this allocation took legal effect.

Voted by parliament: Congress’s $30 million for the NAIRR in fiscal year 2026, October 2025 to September 2026. Printed as “$30,000,000”. National Artificial Intelligence Research Resource (NAIRR) Pilot Program.—The agreement provides $30,000,000 for the NAIRR. U.S. Congress (U.S. Government Publishing Office), Congressional Record, 8 January 2026 (Vol. 172, No. 5, Book II): Explanatory statement submitted by the Chair of the House Committee on Appropriations regarding H.R. 6938, Commerce, Justice, Science; Energy and Water Development; and Interior and Environment Appropriations Act, 2026, page H265 (PDF page 11), Division A, National Science Foundation, Research and Related Activities

Budget estimate: $30 million, 11 Mar 2024. Printed as “30.00”. NSF's FY2025 budget request for the NAIRR (table in dollars in millions; FY 2023 Base Plan and FY 2024 columns print '-'). Neither the FY2026 request (30 May 2025) nor the FY2027 request (3 April 2026) prints a NAIRR line, so no FY2024 or FY2025 actual for the NAIRR appears in NSF's budget documents. National Artificial Intelligence Research Resource (NAIRR) - - 30.00 30.00 N/A U.S. National Science Foundation, NSF FY 2025 Budget Request to Congress, CISE - 2 (PDF page 301), table 'CISE Major Investments (Dollars in Millions)', columns FY 2023 Base Plan | FY 2024 (TBD) | FY 2025 Request | Change amount | Change percent, 11 Mar 2024

Obligated: $7 million, 31 Aug 2026. Printed as “FY 2026 = $7,000,000.00”. NSF cooperative agreement 2616251, 'NAIRR-OC: Advancing AI Discovery and Innovation for the Nation' (University of California-San Diego), funded from NSF program element 296Y00 'NAIRR-Nat AI Research Resource'; award and latest amendment dated 31 August 2026; performance period 1 October 2026 to 30 September 2031. An obligation, not a payment. USAspending's File C for FY2026 period 11 (August 2026, the latest revealed period on 2 November 2026) shows the same $7,000,000 against account 049-0100 with gross_outlay_amount null, and the award summary shows total_account_outlay 0.0 (receipts us/dl-09 and us/dl-10). "date":"08/31/2026","estimatedTotalAmt":"35000000","expDate":"09/30/2031","fundProgramName":"NAIRR-Nat AI Research Resource","fundsObligated":["FY 2026 = $7,000,000.00"],"fundsObligatedAmt":"7000000" U.S. National Science Foundation, NSF Award Search web API: award 2616251, fields fundsObligated, estimatedTotalAmt, startDate, expDate, progEleCode, 31 Aug 2026

Announced: $35 million, 31 Aug 2026. Printed as “35000000”. NSF's estimated total amount for the NAIRR Operations Center agreement over 1 October 2026 to 30 September 2031; only $7,000,000 of it is obligated (figure above). A plan for future obligations, not spending. "estimatedTotalAmt":"35000000","expDate":"09/30/2031" U.S. National Science Foundation, NSF Award Search web API: award 2616251, field estimatedTotalAmt, 31 Aug 2026

Budget estimate: $2.6 billion, 24 Jan 2023. Printed as “$2.6 billion”. The NAIRR Task Force's estimated cost of a full NAIRR over a six-year period (Table 1 totals '~ $2.6B': $2.25B resource providers, $370M operating entity, $30M evaluation). A proposal; Congress has appropriated no such amount. This is the source of the programme record's announced figure. NAIRR costs are estimated at $2.6 billion over a six-year period (see Table 1). National Artificial Intelligence Research Resource Task Force (NSF and OSTP), Strengthening and Democratizing the U.S. Artificial Intelligence Innovation Ecosystem: An Implementation Plan for a National Artificial Intelligence Research Resource (NAIRR Task Force final report), printed page 48 (PDF page 60), section 'NAIRR Budget' and Table 1, 24 Jan 2023

Searched, 11 places

Congressional Record (govinfo.gov), explanatory statement for H.R. 6938: Congressional Record of 8 January 2026, Book II: explanatory statement for the Commerce, Justice, Science; Energy and Water Development; and Interior and Environment Appropriations Act, 2026 (all 342 pages searched for 'NAIRR' and 'Artificial Intelligence Research Resource'). One passage, page H265: '$30,000,000 for the NAIRR' within NSF Research and Related Activities. No other NAIRR amount. Congressional Record (govinfo.gov), explanatory statement for H.R. 6938, 2 Nov 2026

Public Law 119-74 (govinfo.gov): Public Law 119-74, approved 23 January 2026: section 4 (explanatory statement) and Division A, National Science Foundation, Research and Related Activities. R&RA appropriation of $7,176,500,000 available until 30 September 2027; section 4 gives the explanatory statement the effect of a conference statement for the allocation of funds. The Act's text itself does not name the NAIRR. Public Law 119-74 (govinfo.gov), 2 Nov 2026

NSF budget requests to Congress (nsf.gov/about/budget): FY 2025 Budget Request (11 March 2024, 566 pp.), FY 2026 Budget Request full rollup (30 May 2025) and its chapter 07 'Administration Priorities and Crosscutting Research Topics Summary', FY 2027 Budget Request (3 April 2026, 194 pp.); each searched in full text for 'NAIRR' and 'Research Resource'. FY2025 request: NAIRR $30.00 million (CISE Major Investments table). FY2026 and FY2027 requests: narrative only (the FY2027 request says NSF will support 'transitioning' the NAIRR beyond the pilot); no NAIRR dollar line, and no actual obligations or outlays for any year. NSF budget requests to Congress (nsf.gov/about/budget), 2 Nov 2026

NSF NAIRR page and NAIRR Two Year Progress Update: nsf.gov/focus-areas/ai/nairr (read 2 November 2026) and 'NAIRR 2 Year Progress Update' (PDF dated 5 March 2026, 30 pp.), including Appendix 2 'NAIRR Pilot organization and agency investments'. No NSF spending figure. The update says partners contributed 'without exchanging funds', NSF funded operations teams through supplements to named awards (Table A2.1, no amounts), and private partners' in-kind contributions are 'approximately $100 million' (private, not government spending). NSF NAIRR page and NAIRR Two Year Progress Update, 2 Nov 2026

NSF FY 2025 Agency Financial Report: NSF FY 2025 Agency Financial Report (full text searched for 'NAIRR' and 'Artificial Intelligence Research Resource'); not kept as a receipt (no figure cited). One narrative mention in Management's Discussion and Analysis (pilot expanded to 14 agencies and 28 nongovernmental partners); no dollar amount for the NAIRR. The FY 2026 report was not yet published on 2 November 2026 (unverified). NSF FY 2025 Agency Financial Report, 2 Nov 2026

NSF Award Search web API: All awards matching keyword 'NAIRR' (API reported 115; 114 returned across offsets 1-101), award dates 2019-2026, with obligated and estimated totals and funding program names. Award-level obligations only, many co-funded from other programme elements; NSF's 'NAIRR-Nat AI Research Resource' element (296Y00) also funds supplements to older awards, so the API cannot isolate NAIRR obligations, and it carries no payments. Award 2616251 (NAIRR Operations Center): $7,000,000 obligated, $35,000,000 estimated total. NSF Award Search web API, 2 Nov 2026

USAspending.gov API: Award ASST_NON_2616251_049 summary and File C funding rows; NSF (agency 049) program activities with obligations and gross outlays for FY2024, FY2025 and FY2026; submission periods (latest revealed: FY2026 period 11, August 2026, revealed 2 October 2026). NSF program activities are directorate-level (e.g. Computer and Information Science and Engineering); none is the NAIRR, and the FY2026 query returned no rows. Award 2616251: $7,000,000 obligated in period 11, gross outlay null, total_account_outlay 0.0. USAspending.gov API, 2 Nov 2026

Oversight.gov (inspectors general reports, including NSF OIG): Full-text searches 'NAIRR' and '"Artificial Intelligence Research Resource"' across federal OIG reports, run on 2 November 2026. 0 results for each search. Oversight.gov (inspectors general reports, including NSF OIG), 2 Nov 2026

GAO (gao.gov): GAO report search for 'NAIRR' and 'National Artificial Intelligence Research Resource', refused on 2 November 2026. Could not open: gao.gov returned HTTP 403 to curl and WebFetch. Web searches returned no GAO product on the NAIRR. GAO (gao.gov), 2 Nov 2026

NSF Budget Internet Information System (obligations by programme element): Funding-by-program reports; the host did not answer on 2 November 2026. Could not open: the host did not answer (connection failed). NSF Budget Internet Information System (obligations by programme element), 2 Nov 2026

DOE Office of Science FY 2027 budget request narratives: FY 2027 Request Narrative: SC Overview, and Funding by Congressional Control (DOE contributes computing to the pilot in kind); not kept as receipts (no figure cited). No mention of the NAIRR. DOE Office of Science FY 2027 budget request narratives, 2 Nov 2026

Still open

Paid is null because no government document states NAIRR spending. NSF's budget requests stopped printing a NAIRR line after FY2025; the programme-element obligations NSF once published through its Budget Internet Information System could not be reached. A FY2028 request or an NSF answer to Congress may print NAIRR actual obligations; outlays would still need USAspending at award level.

Whether NSF obligated the full FY2026 $30,000,000 for the NAIRR by 30 September 2026 is unverified (the Research and Related Activities funds remain available to 30 September 2027). The Operations Center's $7,000,000 is the only obligation this row can attribute wholly to the NAIRR; other 2026 awards carrying the NAIRR programme element are co-funded or unconfirmed.

The record's name includes 'CHIPS Act AI Components', but its notes exclude CHIPS funding from the government figure. This row adds no CHIPS line; one would first need a defined scope (NSF's CHIPS spend plan for FY2026 covers $50.00 million of microelectronics workforce funding, not AI).

FY2027 NAIRR funding was not checked: the status of FY2027 Commerce-Justice-Science appropriations on 2 November 2026, and whether any committee report or enacted act names a NAIRR amount, is unverified.

Open Sovereign AI Funding

Partners

Microsoft

United States

Stage: Empanelled

Notes

$20M in Azure computing credits.

Sources, 16

How the figures were made

Caveats, 6

Evidence, 32 entries

Hardware records

GPU model unverified

Organisation and role

NVIDIA H100 SXM

Organisation and role

Source

NVIDIA H100

Organisation and role

Source

Funding

Headline amount

Government funding

Committed

Government spending

National Artificial Intelligence Research Resource (NAIRR) Pilot Program, within the National Science Foundation's Research and Related Activities appropriation

Searched, 11 places

Still open

Partners

Microsoft

Notes

Source

NVIDIA

Notes

Source

Amazon Web Services

Notes

Qualifications

Source

Anthropic

Notes

Qualifications

Source

OpenAI

Notes

Source

Google

Notes

Qualifications

Source

IBM

Notes

Qualifications

Source

Meta

Notes

Qualifications

Source

Intel

Notes

Qualifications

Source

Groq

Notes

Qualifications

Source

Cerebras

Notes

Qualifications

Source

Hugging Face

Notes

Qualifications

Source

Databricks

Notes

Qualifications

Source

Palantir

Notes

Qualifications

Source

SambaNova Systems

Notes

Qualifications

Source

EleutherAI