C004554 - Empire AI - Joinder Agreement

Notice of Sole Source Exemption from Office of the State Comptroller Empire AI Consortium, Inc. is the consortium entity contemplated by Economic Development Law § 361 to operate and manage the institute located on the campus of the State University of New York at Buffalo and administer consortium participation, including governance and allocation of computational resources. No alternate vendor can provide SUNY membership in the Empire AI consortium or access to consortium resources under the statutory consortium framework. Accordingly, Empire AI Consortium, Inc. is the only responsible source for the contracted participation. SUNY requests a Sole Source Contract Reporter exemption. A formal competitive process is not feasible because SUNY is not procuring substitutable GPU compute or stand-alone managed services; SUNY is joining a specific consortium structure created by statute. Economic Development Law § 361 defines the “Empire AI consortium” as the not-for-profit corporation created to construct and manage the Empire AI Research Institute and provides that the institute will be operated and managed by the consortium. Because membership in this specific statutory consortium—and access under its governance and allocation model—can only be obtained through the consortium entity, advertising a procurement opportunity would not produce responsive offers for an equivalent arrangement. The requested term aligns with the Consortium program design and the term of the Membership Agreement. Participation requires multi-year continuity to support onboarding, campus access administration, and sustained research planning. SUNY’s obligations remain subject to lawful availability of funds and required approvals, and the Joinder contains mechanisms addressing funding unavailability consistent with State requirements.