Microsoft set to invest $60M in Energy Department’s Genesis Mission

Ashleigh Fields Wed, July 22, 2026 at 2:02 PM UTC

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Microsoft is set to invest $60 million in the Department of Energy’s (DOE) “Genesis Mission,” which focuses on accelerating scientific discovery and technological leadership through artificial intelligence.

The company’s investment will put $40 million toward Azure cloud and AI computing credits over three years to “support large-scale AI and scientific workloads” while $20 million will be set aside to help translate cloud and AI capacity into scientific outcomes, according to its blog post.

“We are entering an era where AI and quantum don’t just support the scientific process, they are essential to it,” Chris Barry, Microsoft’s president of U.S. public sector industries, said in a statement.

Microsoft will also support DOE’s Genesis Mission through a new coordination hub for scientific discovery named the “Scientific Partnership Advancing Research & Knowledge,” or SPARK.

The first four SPARK projects will take place at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, with a focus on critical minerals and materials; the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory will helm efforts to strengthen biosecurity; the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory will have autonomous labs for accelerated materials discovery; and Idaho National Laboratory will work on accelerating nuclear energy permitting and autonomous energy operations, according to the blog post.

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Microsoft’s efforts expand on DOE partnerships with major tech companies, academic institutions, and AI startups such as OpenAI, Anthropic, Google DeepMind and Nvidia for the Genesis Mission.

Each entity is set to help pool expertise, computing power and models. DOE has 40,000 scientists, engineers and technical staff, alongside those in the private sector working on the Genesis Mission.

The initiative is intended to connect DOE’s 17 national laboratories, supercomputers and experimental facilities into a unified digital environment.

Last November, Energy Secretary Chris Wright said the Genesis Mission will “ensure” that America is the “global leader” in AI as lawmakers raise concerns about falling behind China.

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Source: “AOL Money”