At the University of Hawaiʻi Cancer Center in Kakaʻako, a garage-sized ground-floor room is getting a serious glow-up into a compact artificial-intelligence data center aimed at sharpening clinical tools for Hawaiʻi and the wider Pacific. The idea is to give local clinicians computing power and datasets tailored to the islands’ diverse communities, where national AI systems can miss key differences. Local leaders say the project could anchor new research jobs and help pull more federal dollars into Honolulu-based studies.
Federal records show the National Institutes of Health has awarded a P20 grant, listed as P20GM161995, to establish the Pacific Center for Artificial Intelligence and Data Science in Medicine with an initial award of $2,647,500, according to HHS TAGGS. The entry appears in HHS tracking for fiscal year 2026 and is intended to seed coordination, training and infrastructure work for the new center.
The Honolulu Star-Advertiser reports the award is part of a five-year federal push that includes roughly $300,000 to convert and equip the cancer-center space, with work on the lab expected to wrap by the end of the year. Project leads told the paper the facility is projected to employ about 26 people and that the initial federal investment could unlock an additional $50 million to $100 million in downstream research funding for Hawaiʻi. Sen. Brian Schatz, who pushed for the funding, praised the move while also warning about AI’s risks, from fraud and theft to cybersecurity and energy and water use, as the state builds this new capacity, according to the paper…