Microsoft announced a $60 million investment in the U.S. Department of Energy's Genesis Mission, aimed at doubling American research productivity within a decade by embedding AI into the scientific process. The investment includes $40 million in Azure compute and AI credits and $20 million in engineering services. Alongside this, Microsoft is launching SPARK (Scientific Partnership Advancing Research & Knowledge), a coordination hub and program office to facilitate collaboration across DOE's 17 National Laboratories. The initiative leverages Microsoft Discovery (an integrated AI-for-science platform now generally available), Azure cloud infrastructure, and Majorana-based quantum computing advances. Early projects include AI-accelerated energy storage materials discovery at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, biosecurity modeling at Lawrence Livermore, autonomous materials labs at Johns Hopkins APL, and nuclear energy permitting automation at Idaho National Laboratory.
