SETI Institute Accelerates the Search for Life Beyond Earth with NVIDIA IGX Thor

October 28, 2025, Mountain View, CA – The SETI Institute announced that it will incorporate the new NVIDIA IGX Thor platform to enhance its real-time search for signals from space at the Allen Telescope Array (ATA) in Northern California. The collaboration brings cutting-edge AI technology—built for demanding real-world environments—into radio astronomy for the first time at this scale.

The ATA’s 42 antennas scan the sky for radio signals that may reveal cosmic events or, one day, evidence of intelligent life. Using the NVIDIA IGX Thor platform, the SETI Institute will be able to process and interpret these signals directly at the telescope, dramatically reducing the time it takes to recognize unusual or promising data.

“NVIDIA IGX Thor enables us to run AI inference and GPU-accelerated signal processing workloads closer to the edge,” said Luigi Cruz, Staff Engineer at the SETI Institute. “Its compact form factor and power efficiency makes it an ideal development platform for our next-generation pipeline, which is based on NVIDIA Holoscan.”

Bringing Real-Time AI to the Edge of Discovery

This new collaboration builds on the SETI Institute’s earlier success with NVIDIA IGX Orin, which powered the world’s first real-time AI search for fast radio bursts (FRBs)— flashes of radio energy that last milliseconds. The move to IGX Thor will expand those capabilities, allowing researchers to analyze more of the sky, more quickly, and with greater precision.

“By combining scientific curiosity with advanced technology, we’re transforming how we explore the universe,” said Dr. Andrew Siemion, Bernard M. Oliver Chair for SETI at the SETI Institute. “The new NVIDIA platform gives us the reliability and performance to run complex AI models right at the telescope. It’s an incredible step forward for our mission.”

Part of a Growing AI Ecosystem

The NVIDIA IGX Thor platform is being adopted by innovators across multiple fields—from industrial safety to medical technology—demonstrating its versatility and reliability. The SETI Institute’s work shows how the same breakthrough technology driving safer factories and smarter hospitals can also power scientific discovery at the frontiers of space.

About the SETI Institute
Founded in 1984, the SETI Institute is a non-profit, multi-disciplinary research and education organization whose mission is to lead humanity's quest to understand the origins and prevalence of life and intelligence in the universe and to share that knowledge with the world. Our research encompasses the physical and biological sciences and leverages expertise in data analytics, machine learning and advanced signal detection technologies. The SETI Institute is a distinguished research partner for industry, academia and government agencies, including NASA and NSF.

Contact information
Rebecca McDonald
Director of Communications
SETI Institute
[email protected]

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