MIT Boosts Computing Cluster with Over 200 NVIDIA B200 GPUs

New $31 million grant from Massachusetts Governor to fund advanced AI hardware for MIT research community.

Published on Feb. 24, 2026

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MIT's Office of Research Computing and Data (ORCD) is set to deploy over 200 of NVIDIA's latest B200 graphics processing units (GPUs) following a $31 million matching grant from Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey. The new state-of-the-art GPUs will join hundreds of older advanced NVIDIA devices already maintained by ORCD on the Engaging cluster, a shared computing resource available to the entire MIT community.

Why it matters

The addition of these powerful new GPUs will significantly boost MIT's computing capacity, especially for training and running large AI models, which are increasingly crucial for cutting-edge research and innovation across many fields. The investment also highlights Massachusetts' commitment to supporting the state's thriving AI and tech ecosystem.

The details

The B200 GPUs, according to NVIDIA, provide three times the training performance and fifteen times the inference performance compared to previous-generation systems. ORCD is targeting around 100 public B200s on the Engaging cluster by mid-2026, though supply chain issues have added uncertainty to the timeline. ORCD will also begin offering a fee-based tier to allow researchers to run longer and more intensive jobs, while still providing free 'base level' GPU and CPU access to the MIT community.

  • In September 2022, MIT established the Office of Research Computing and Data (ORCD) to address the computing and data needs of the entire MIT research and education community.
  • In late January 2026, ORCD Head Peter Fisher and Executive Director Chris Hill announced plans to add the fee-based tier for more intensive computing jobs.
  • ORCD is targeting around 100 public B200 GPUs on the Engaging cluster by mid-2026, though supply chain issues have added uncertainty to the timeline.

The players

Maura Healey

The Governor of Massachusetts who provided a $31 million matching grant to fund the new NVIDIA GPUs for MIT.

Peter Fisher

The Head of MIT's Office of Research Computing and Data and the Thomas A. Frank (1977) Professor of Physics.

Chris Hill

The Executive Director of MIT's Office of Research Computing and Data.

Ian Waitz

MIT's Vice President for Research, who expressed optimism about the new computing hardware supporting AI research and innovation.

Sabrina Mansur

The Director of the Massachusetts AI Hub, which oversees the carbon-free MGHPCC data center hosting the Engaging computing cluster.

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What they’re saying

“Scholarship and innovation are increasingly fueled by computation. The broad access to hardware at MGHPCC will support the pursuit of new artificial intelligence discoveries, practices and solutions that can benefit the state and the nation.”

— Ian Waitz, MIT Vice President for Research (thetech.com)

“We are routinely seeing months of delays on commodity parts and vendor price fluctuations of 100% or more on some components.”

— Chris Hill, ORCD Executive Director (thetech.com)

What’s next

ORCD is targeting around 100 public B200 GPUs on the Engaging cluster by mid-2026, though supply chain issues have added uncertainty to the timeline.

The takeaway

MIT's major investment in state-of-the-art GPU hardware, supported by a $31 million grant from the Massachusetts governor, underscores the growing importance of advanced computing power for driving cutting-edge AI research and innovation across academia and industry.