NSF AI grant $3.85M: "Bison," a GPU supercomputer for AI research (North Dakota State University)
The NSF awarded about $3.85M (a Major Research Instrumentation grant) to acquire "Bison," a GPU-accelerated supercomputer for compute-intensive and AI research. Centered at NDSU, it is a statewide shared resource open to all 11 North Dakota University System institutions and 5 tribal colleges, contributing to democratizing AI.
Grant overview (primary data)
- Award amount$3,848,048
- RecipientNorth Dakota State University Fargo（ND）
- ProgramSpecial Projects - CNS, Special Initiatives
- Period2025-10-01 〜 2028-09-30
- FunderU.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) / NSF
Key points
- Acquires "Bison," a GPU-accelerated supercomputer for AI and compute-intensive research (MRI grant)
- A statewide shared resource for all 11 ND University System institutions and 5 tribal colleges
- Used across many fields (agriculture, healthcare, energy, quantum information) and for training
- Fosters collaboration centered on AI and contributes to democratizing AI
- About $3.85M, led by NDSU, 2025–2028
The NSF awarded about $3,848,048 to North Dakota State University (NDSU) as a Major Research Instrumentation (MRI) grant (NSF Award 2510020; October 2025 – September 2028) to acquire, deploy, and operate "Bison," a GPU-accelerated high-performance computing system.
Per the abstract, Bison is built for compute-intensive and AI research and transforms the capabilities of NDSU and other North Dakota institutions to conduct leading-edge research with implications for public policy, agriculture and food security, healthcare, energy, engineering, the environment, and quantum information science, among others. Crucially, Bison is not the property of a single lab but a statewide regional resource that provides infrastructure to faculty, staff, and students at all 11 institutions of the North Dakota University System and the 5 tribal colleges in the state. By fostering collaboration across the state and the country, especially on AI research, it contributes to efforts to democratize AI.
The instrument ("Bison," named after the majestic American mammal) consists of a premier storage system built to support AI workflows and a GPU cluster for highly compute-intensive computation and AI training and inference. It enables leading-edge research across the social sciences, computer science, bioinformatics, biomechanics, fluid dynamics, physics, chemistry, materials science, civil engineering, and more, and supports the education and training of the next generation of scientists, engineers, and research-computing professionals.
Why it matters
A case of building AI computing (GPU) infrastructure as a regional shared resource rather than for a single university. For those considering how to secure AI computing resources and pursue regional, inclusive AI workforce development, a useful read on U.S. regional infrastructure investment.
FAQ
What is an MRI grant?
Why open it statewide and to tribal colleges?
Sources (primary)
Source: NSF Award Search (U.S. National Science Foundation, public domain). Amounts are the obligated amount. For privacy, we do not handle principal investigator names.
- NSF Award (original, official)
- NSF Award ID: 2510020