Brookhaven Lab, Amazon Web Services Partner to Connect AI Data Centers

Collaboration aims to accelerate electric grid interconnection of AI data centers in support of the Genesis Mission

June 30, 2026

UPTON, N.Y. and WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory and Amazon Web Services (AWS) today announced a partnership that will leverage AWS' advanced cloud computing infrastructure and artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities to accelerate the development of Brookhaven Lab’s GridSearch project. GridSearch is an innovative AI-driven solution designed to transform how new generation facilities connect to America's electric grid. The partnership was announced today during the AWS Summit Washington, D.C.

“This partnership will demonstrate the power of public-private collaboration in support of DOE’s Genesis Mission, a national initiative to build the world's most powerful scientific platform to accelerate discovery science, strengthen national security, and drive energy innovation,” said Brookhaven Lab Director John Hill. “GridSearch is a great example of how we can apply Genesis Mission capabilities to real-world applications, helping the nation to achieve AI leadership and energy dominance.”

GridSearch uses a Grid Foundation Model (GridFM) developed as an open-source project under the Linux Foundation Energy, with major contributions from organizations including IBM Research, Hydro Quebec, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Stony Brook University, Argonne National Laboratory, and others. GridFM is an AI system that enables significantly faster grid simulations while maintaining accuracy and robustness.

“GridSearch is an excellent example for AI enabling AI — what we call ‘AI4AI,’” said Hendrik Hamann, chief AI scientist for Innovation, Science, and Security at Brookhaven National Laboratory and joint appointee at Stony Brook University. “It aims to provide critical decision support to stakeholders and help them accelerate the data center interconnection process with optimal affordability and minimal disruption to the electric grid.”

This breakthrough technology will help address a critical national challenge: the lengthy and costly process of connecting new infrastructure to the electrical grid. This includes AI data centers, energy production facilities, and advanced manufacturing plants. Traditional interconnection studies can take years and require extensive infrastructure investments. GridSearch changes this paradigm by prescreening thousands of potential interconnection locations to identify optimal connection points with minimal grid impact.

"AWS is deeply aligned with DOE's Genesis Mission to build the world's most powerful scientific platform, and GridSearch is exactly the kind of AI-driven innovation that brings that mission to life,” said Christian Hoff, Director of Global Civilian Government at AWS. “Our collaboration with Brookhaven National Laboratory reflects AWS's commitment to advancing American AI leadership by putting cutting-edge cloud and AI capabilities in service of the nation's most critical energy and security challenges. Together, we're demonstrating how public-private collaboration can accelerate discovery, strengthen national security, and ensure the United States leads the world in AI."

Through this collaboration, AWS will provide the computational infrastructure and AI expertise necessary to scale GridSearch across major transmission grids nationwide. By reducing interconnection timelines from years to months and enabling data-driven infrastructure planning, this initiative directly supports national priorities in energy security, economic development, and technological leadership. It also exemplifies how collaboration can help accelerate America's energy infrastructure modernization while supporting the Genesis Mission's goal of doubling U.S. research productivity through AI-accelerated innovation.

"Grid interconnection has long been one of the greatest opportunities for unlocking America's energy potential — from new data centers to advanced energy projects," said Joseph Santamaria, General Manager, Energy & Utilities at AWS. "AWS is committed to modernizing the grid, and cloud and AI are powerful enablers that help energy companies accelerate that process, raise productivity, and reduce operating costs. This is the kind of work AWS was built to do across the entire energy industry."

This announcement builds on the recently executed Memorandum of Understanding between DOE and AWS, which establishes a framework for advancing artificial intelligence and advanced computing initiatives across the DOE complex and its 17 national laboratories.

GridFM is supported by DOE’s Office of Critical Minerals and Energy Innovation.

Brookhaven National Laboratory is supported by the Office of Science of the U.S. Department of Energy. The Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, visit science.energy.gov.

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