Fresno, CA — July 6, 2026 — F3 Innovate (F3i), Fresno State and the San Diego Supercomputer Center at UC San Diego have announced the launch of the F3i Supercomputing Center, a regional innovation platform that provides the computing power, technical support and talent pipeline needed to accelerate innovation across California’s food and agriculture supply chain. The center is a first-of-its-kind partnership between industry and higher education, created to expand access to the advanced computing infrastructure required to compete in an AI-driven economy.
The Central Valley produces a significant share of the nation’s food, supports more than 14,000 farming and food-processing operations, serves as a critical logistics hub and hosts a growing network of manufacturers, researchers, entrepreneurs and educational institutions. Historically, most AI development and investment has been concentrated elsewhere. The F3i Supercomputing Center brings advanced computing resources directly to the region, giving growers, food processors, manufacturers, logistics companies, startups and researchers shared access to powerful computing and technical support to test and apply AI to real-world challenges.
By hosting this center, Fresno State will help prepare the next generation of engineers, researchers, agricultural professionals and entrepreneurs while strengthening the innovation ecosystem that supports the Central Valley’s economy.— Dr. Bao Johri, Vice President of Information Technology and Chief Information Officer, Fresno State
Three integrated services
- Affordable high-performance computing — shared access to advanced computing resources so organizations can train AI models, process large datasets and test emerging technologies without major infrastructure investments.
- Applied AI services — technical expertise to help organizations identify opportunities, develop AI-enabled solutions and deploy advanced technologies that improve productivity, sustainability and efficiency.
- Workforce and talent development — training for students, educators, researchers and working professionals through F3i’s Data Challenges and its AI Launchpad program with Microsoft.
A shared model for the region
Under the partnership, F3 Innovate leads the center and its programs, the San Diego Supercomputer Center at UC San Diego provides cyberinfrastructure and AI systems architecture, and California State University, Fresno hosts and operates the physical compute environment. The center is designed to serve California-based startups, researchers and educators in agriculture and biotech, with priority for Central Valley users — reaching the small agricultural startup that can’t afford a GPU cluster, the graduate student who can’t license the datasets and the grower who doesn’t have the bandwidth to run a research project.
F3 Innovate, Fresno State and regional leaders will celebrate the launch of the F3i Supercomputing Center from 10 a.m. to noon on Thursday, July 9, 2026, in the Fresno State Library. The event will feature AI model demonstrations, case studies and a discussion of the center’s role in advancing agriculture, food security, workforce development and K-16 education pathways.