Friends of Empire AI (2025)

Over the course of two consecutive sessions, ASA advised a consortium of eight universities to advocate for Governor Hochul’s vision for the Empire AI Consortium: a collective $340 Million in State capital funding which -- when combined with $200 Million in private university operating funding over 10 years  -- will procure and operate what will eventually be the most powerful public AI supercomputer in the world to conduct groundbreaking academic research exclusively in the public good. ASA helped implement a government relations and public relations strategy, educate lawmakers, and negotiate budget language, and in the end the initiative was successfully included in the SFY 2024 and 2025 budgets. The Alpha version of the Empire AI Supercomputer, which is already the 134th most powerful supercomputer in the world, was up and running in a temporary facility on the University of Buffalo campus in October of 2024. The full Empire AI computing center is scheduled to be completed at SUNY Buffalo in 2026.