The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is buying an Nvidia DGX SuperPOD AI computing cluster.
According to a report from The Intercept, the US tax agency will install the supercomputer at its Enterprise Computing Center in Martinsburg, West Virginia.
The acquisition document notes that the cluster will consist of 31 DGX B200 systems, each of which contains eight Blackwell GPUs and provides 72 petaflops of training and 144 petaflops of inference performance. While no cost was indicated on the document, an Nvidia DGX SuperPOD can cost between $7 million and $60 million, depending on the size of the deployment.
Earlier this month, the University of Florida announced it had purchased a supercomputer consisting of 63 Nvidia DGX B200 systems – approximately twice the size of the IRS deployment – for $24 million.
The supercomputer will be used by the IRS Research, Applied Analytics, and Statistics (RAAS) division to support its Compliance Data Warehouse (CDW) project.
According to the purchase document, “CDW is specifically designed to meet the distinctive use patterns of research and advanced analytics. It combines disparate, multi-structured, and distributed data sets over long periods of time for longitudinal analysis, simulation, and specialized modeling.”
It added: “The IRS is committed to leveraging advanced technologies, including deep learning and natural language processing, to enhance its operations and provide better services to taxpayers,” noting that “investments in CDW’s data and technology capabilities have been significant drivers of success in risk discovery, behavioral insights, and workload planning.”
In 2023, a report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) found that the IRS’s reliance on outdated IT infrastructure was increasing the risk of cybersecurity breaches and staffing issues, as well as costs.
The report found that around 23 percent of software instances were running 15 versions behind what they should have been, while 33 percent of applications were between 25 and 64 years old. Eight percent of hardware assets were also considered ‘legacy.’
Last week, US treasury secretary Scott Bessent said he hoped to upgrade the technology at the IRS to improve collections, privacy, and customer service. A member of Elon Musk’s DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency) team has been stationed at the IRS since Thursday, February 13, purportedly to provide engineering assistance and IT modernization consulting.
The same team member has since reportedly requested access to personal taxpayer data from the agency.
