# The Equal-Award Projection, 552 to 1 > Alaska is 570,641 square miles of land, about 552 times Rhode Island's 1,034. Published 2026-08-14 by Alaska AI. 9 slides. Canonical: https://alaskaaihq.com/archive/2026-08-14/ ## The story One award per state. Alaska is 552 Rhode Islands. BY LAND AREA. U.S. CENSUS BUREAU. C23 C24 Fifty states. Fifty identical marks. Every state is drawn at its true relative area through one projection. Every mark is the same size, because the rule is the same size. NSF anticipates ten awards per cycle. Only one award per state or multi-state region will be made. An institution may appear as a participant in at most one proposal. Ten awards. One cycle. NSF announced the program as a $100 million initiative. The solicitation puts anticipated funding at $40 million to $100 million. It expects a proposal to request $4 million to $12 million over five years. Today, access to this infrastructure is highly uneven across the nation. 570,641 Alaska's land area. The largest of any state. About 552 times Rhode Island's 1,034 square miles. Spreading it is the point. Spreading a national program across the whole country is a defensible thing to want, and it is the reason the cap exists. It also makes the largest state and the smallest one the same unit of need. 82 days to the deadline. Subsequent deadlines fall on the first Wednesday in November. A state that misses this cycle is not shut out, it waits a year. That is the difference between a ceiling and a cliff. Save this. The deadline is November 4th. SOURCES IN COMMENTS ## What we verified - NSF solicitation 26-513 states that only one award per state or multi-state region will be made. [U.S. National Science Foundation, Program Solicitation NSF 26-513](https://www.nsf.gov/funding/opportunities/us-national-science-foundation-state-regional-artificial/nsf26-513/solicitation), primary document, 2026-07-31. - NSF's announcement says it will initially support up to 10 AI Infrastructure Hubs with one award made per state or region. [U.S. National Science Foundation news release](https://www.nsf.gov/news/new-nsf-state-regional-ai-infrastructure-hubs-will-power-ai), primary document, 2026-08-04. - The solicitation says an institution may appear as a participant in at most one proposal. [U.S. National Science Foundation, Program Solicitation NSF 26-513](https://www.nsf.gov/funding/opportunities/us-national-science-foundation-state-regional-artificial/nsf26-513/solicitation), primary document, 2026-07-31. - The solicitation says that if more than one proposal contains an institution as a participant then only the first one will be reviewed. [U.S. National Science Foundation, Program Solicitation NSF 26-513](https://www.nsf.gov/funding/opportunities/us-national-science-foundation-state-regional-artificial/nsf26-513/solicitation), primary document, 2026-07-31. - The solicitation prohibits inclusion of voluntary committed cost sharing. [U.S. National Science Foundation, Program Solicitation NSF 26-513](https://www.nsf.gov/funding/opportunities/us-national-science-foundation-state-regional-artificial/nsf26-513/solicitation), primary document, 2026-07-31. - The full proposal deadline for the first cycle of NSF 26-513 is November 4, 2026. [U.S. National Science Foundation, Program Solicitation NSF 26-513](https://www.nsf.gov/funding/opportunities/us-national-science-foundation-state-regional-artificial/nsf26-513/solicitation), primary document, 2026-07-31. - There are 82 days from the run date of August 14, 2026 to the November 4, 2026 full proposal deadline. [U.S. National Science Foundation, Program Solicitation NSF 26-513](https://www.nsf.gov/funding/opportunities/us-national-science-foundation-state-regional-artificial/nsf26-513/solicitation), primary document, 2026-07-31. - NSF's solicitation says access to AI infrastructure including computing, data and software is highly uneven across the nation. [U.S. National Science Foundation, Program Solicitation NSF 26-513](https://www.nsf.gov/funding/opportunities/us-national-science-foundation-state-regional-artificial/nsf26-513/solicitation), primary document, 2026-07-31. - NSF's August 4th announcement says access to AI infrastructure remains highly uneven across the nation. [U.S. National Science Foundation news release](https://www.nsf.gov/news/new-nsf-state-regional-ai-infrastructure-hubs-will-power-ai), primary document, 2026-08-04. - NSF's announcement describes the program as a $100 million initiative. [U.S. National Science Foundation news release](https://www.nsf.gov/news/new-nsf-state-regional-ai-infrastructure-hubs-will-power-ai), primary document, 2026-08-04. - The solicitation gives the anticipated funding amount for NSF 26-513 as $40,000,000 to $100,000,000. [U.S. National Science Foundation, Program Solicitation NSF 26-513](https://www.nsf.gov/funding/opportunities/us-national-science-foundation-state-regional-artificial/nsf26-513/solicitation), primary document, 2026-07-31. - The solicitation anticipates 10 awards in each award cycle. [U.S. National Science Foundation, Program Solicitation NSF 26-513](https://www.nsf.gov/funding/opportunities/us-national-science-foundation-state-regional-artificial/nsf26-513/solicitation), primary document, 2026-07-31. - NSF anticipates typical proposals to the program will request 5 years and between $4,000,000 and $12,000,000 total budget. [U.S. National Science Foundation, Program Solicitation NSF 26-513](https://www.nsf.gov/funding/opportunities/us-national-science-foundation-state-regional-artificial/nsf26-513/solicitation), primary document, 2026-07-31. - The program's full official title is U.S. National Science Foundation State and Regional Artificial Intelligence Infrastructure Hubs, Expanding Access to Compute for Scientific Discovery. [U.S. National Science Foundation, Program Solicitation NSF 26-513](https://www.nsf.gov/funding/opportunities/us-national-science-foundation-state-regional-artificial/nsf26-513/solicitation), primary document, 2026-07-31. - The solicitation is numbered NSF 26-513 and was posted on July 31, 2026. [U.S. National Science Foundation, Program Solicitation NSF 26-513](https://www.nsf.gov/funding/opportunities/us-national-science-foundation-state-regional-artificial/nsf26-513/solicitation), primary document, 2026-07-31. - NSF announced the State and Regional AI Infrastructure Hubs program on August 4, 2026. [U.S. National Science Foundation news release](https://www.nsf.gov/news/new-nsf-state-regional-ai-infrastructure-hubs-will-power-ai), primary document, 2026-08-04. - Brian Stone, performing the duties of the NSF director, is the NSF official quoted in the announcement. [U.S. National Science Foundation news release](https://www.nsf.gov/news/new-nsf-state-regional-ai-infrastructure-hubs-will-power-ai), primary document, 2026-08-04. - Brian Stone said the program supports a national mission to advance AI for science by expanding access to critical AI resources. [U.S. National Science Foundation news release](https://www.nsf.gov/news/new-nsf-state-regional-ai-infrastructure-hubs-will-power-ai), primary document, 2026-08-04. - Michael Kratsios, assistant to the president and director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, is also quoted in the NSF announcement. [U.S. National Science Foundation news release](https://www.nsf.gov/news/new-nsf-state-regional-ai-infrastructure-hubs-will-power-ai), primary document, 2026-08-04. - The solicitation names two categories of eligible proposers, institutions of higher education and non-profit non-academic organizations. [U.S. National Science Foundation, Program Solicitation NSF 26-513](https://www.nsf.gov/funding/opportunities/us-national-science-foundation-state-regional-artificial/nsf26-513/solicitation), primary document, 2026-07-31. - The solicitation limits an individual to participating in at most one proposal as PI, co-PI or Senior or Key Personnel for each deadline. [U.S. National Science Foundation, Program Solicitation NSF 26-513](https://www.nsf.gov/funding/opportunities/us-national-science-foundation-state-regional-artificial/nsf26-513/solicitation), primary document, 2026-07-31. - The solicitation lists subsequent full proposal deadlines of November 3, 2027 and the first Wednesday in November annually thereafter. [U.S. National Science Foundation, Program Solicitation NSF 26-513](https://www.nsf.gov/funding/opportunities/us-national-science-foundation-state-regional-artificial/nsf26-513/solicitation), primary document, 2026-07-31. - The U.S. Census Bureau puts Alaska's land area at 570,641 square miles, the largest of any state. [U.S. Census Bureau, State Area Measurements and Internal Point Coordinates](https://www.census.gov/geographies/reference-files/2010/geo/state-area.html), primary document, 2021-12-16. - Alaska's land area is about 552 times Rhode Island's, and NSF 26-513 caps each of them at one award. [U.S. Census Bureau, State Area Measurements and Internal Point Coordinates](https://www.census.gov/geographies/reference-files/2010/geo/state-area.html), primary document, 2021-12-16. - A University of Alaska Fairbanks energy research project received a $725,000 award from the U.S. Department of Energy. [University of Alaska Fairbanks](https://www.uaf.edu/news/uaf-leads-ai-project-to-strengthen-alaskas-rural-power-grids.php), primary document, 2026-08-11. - The smallest budget NSF says it anticipates for a hub proposal is about 5.5 times the whole AURORA-AI award to UAF. [U.S. National Science Foundation, Program Solicitation NSF 26-513](https://www.nsf.gov/funding/opportunities/us-national-science-foundation-state-regional-artificial/nsf26-513/solicitation), primary document, 2026-07-31. - The UAF project is called AURORA-AI, short for Alaska Utility Resilience and Optimization using Real-time AI. [University of Alaska Fairbanks](https://www.uaf.edu/news/uaf-leads-ai-project-to-strengthen-alaskas-rural-power-grids.php), primary document, 2026-08-11. - Richard Wies, a professor at UAF, is principal investigator for the AURORA-AI project. [University of Alaska Fairbanks](https://www.uaf.edu/news/uaf-leads-ai-project-to-strengthen-alaskas-rural-power-grids.php), primary document, 2026-08-11. Slides and the deck PDF are linked from the canonical page.