LUBBOCK, Texas (KCBD) – Chancellor Brandon Creighton says the Texas Tech University System is investing $25 million in Nvidia’s next-generation computing infrastructure.
The partnership will bring an AI platform to the Lubbock campus aimed at fueling research and supporting the future economy.
But Creighton said the system is still in the beginning phases of the partnership.
“The future is right here in front of us and Texas Tech is building it,” Creighton said.
Nvidia Blackwell hardware at the center of the deal
“The future is right here in front of us and Texas Tech is building it,” Chancellor Creighton said.(KCBD Video)
The investment centers on Nvidia’s Blackwell Ultra B300 hardware — a chip designed to power supercomputers. Texas Tech is currently narrowing down a location for what’s described as an “AI factory” on its main campus.
Creighton said artificial intelligence connects to every area of academic programming the system offers.
“Artificial intelligence and the future of higher education, how it affects the workforce, it ties into every interdisciplinary mode of education that we offer,” Creighton said.
Workforce and economic impact
Creighton said rapid AI innovation is leaving parts of the current workforce behind, and that Texas Tech is working to integrate AI into the structure of its academic programs.
“There’s one thing that’s for sure, it is that higher education is changing and evolving quickly, and so is the workforce,” Creighton said.
Once the new technology is installed, Creighton said he expects the development to draw companies to Lubbock.
“The synergy that is offered from that and how it will affect our local economies, the opportunities in education, the tax base, and just the way that the workforce will see our part of the state as very, very attractive for bringing their families and calling Lubbock home,” Creighton said.
National defense and regional energy applications
Creighton said the infrastructure will allow Texas Tech to expand research in healthcare, agriculture, energy, finance and cybersecurity.
He highlighted specifically how this technology will help the University System expand its existing work in cybersecurity and national defense.
“The cloud that will come with this Nvidia hardware and infrastructure alone is not only secure, the size of the cloud and the opportunities within it exceed what many foreign governments currently have,” Creighton said.
Creighton said the technology could also produce efficiencies in energy modeling with implications for the Texas power grid.
“These fast computation chips, they could very well, in modeling, find efficiencies that save us billions of dollars in the Texas grid,” Creighton said.
Texas Tech is one of the first universities to secure use of Nvidia’s new technology. The next step will be for Texas Tech leaders and NVIDIA officials to identify a location for the supercomputer on its Lubbock campus.
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