North Dakota State University (NDSU) has been awarded $3.85 million to acquire and deploy an AI supercomputer named Bison.

The system will be housed in the university’s Center for Computationally Assisted Science and Technology (CCAST) data center and is expected to come online in the summer of 2026.

The funding was provided under the Major Research Instrumentation program, and the supercomputer will support the university’s forthcoming AI research initiative across science and engineering use cases, including fluid dynamics, materials science, and civil and environmental engineering, NDSU said.

Alongside students at NDSU, researchers from other universities in North Dakota will have access to the system, in addition to tribal colleges in the state.

No technical details about the system have been disclosed, but in a statement, the university said Bison will include “powerful GPUs and a data storage system optimized for AI workflows,” with the supercomputer set to be “a significant upgrade to the current advanced research computing resources at NDSU.”

NDSU president David Cook said: “This investment positions NDSU at the leading edge of AI and high-performance computing. The Bison supercomputer will enable our faculty, staff, and students to explore new frontiers of discovery and innovation, while deepening partnerships across North Dakota and beyond.

“Bison will transform research at NDSU and expand access to advanced computing across campuses and tribal colleges statewide, opening a broader horizon of opportunity for all.“

CCAST is reportedly the largest academic supercomputing facility in the state of North Dakota, with more than 13,000 CPU cores and 100 GPUs.