Request for Proposal: ALCF Artemis Compute Cluster

UChicago Argonne, LLC, acting as the operator of Argonne National Laboratory under a prime contract with the U.S. Department of Energy, is seeking a firm fixed price proposal for the acquisition, installation, and five-year maintenance and support of the Artemis Compute Cluster, a high-performance computing system designed to serve as a Kubernetes and virtualization environment for persistent services. The cluster will consist of 36 nodes, each with a minimum of 128 physical CPU cores and support for confidential computing modalities, and must be installed into five existing HPE racks within the Building 240 data center at Argonne’s Lemont, Illinois facility. All hardware and software deliverables must conform to a detailed statement of work, including adherence to specified firmware versions, bootability into the latest stable RHEL distribution, and full functionality and observability by the operating system. Installation and acceptance testing must be completed within 30 days of delivery, with acceptance criteria requiring successful completion of lightweight tests prior to title transfer and payment. The contract includes mandatory five-year maintenance and support with 9x5 next business day on-site parts replacement, and all components must be shipped F.O.B. Destination with risk of loss remaining with the contractor until formal acceptance. Proposals must be submitted as three separate files—Technical, Business Management, and Cost/Price—via email to atkinson@anl.gov by 4:30 PM CST on June 5, 2026, with the solicitation number clearly referenced in the subject line. A signed ANL-70B Representations and Certifications form, including compliance with FAR and DEAR clauses, is required for consideration, and contractors must disclose all hardware, software, and licensing components with full Bill of Materials including manufacturer part numbers. Pricing must be broken down into hardware, software, installation, and five-year maintenance components, with an optional spare parts cache. The award will be made on a best-value basis, prioritizing technical merit and contractor responsibility over price, with pass/fail gates for minimum mandatory requirements and business integrity assessments. All personnel accessing systems post-acceptance must be U.S. persons, and the contractor must comply with strict security, safety, and environmental protocols including HSPD-12 identity verification, 10 CFR 851 and 835 compliance, and flow-down of all safety requirements to subcontractors. Invoicing must include the purchase order number, building identification, and item control numbers and be sent to ap@an