DF Below SAT -NVIDIA_signed.pdf

DETERMINATION & FINDINGS

Authority to Solicit from a Single Source (at or below the SAT)

1. Agency and Contracting Activity: (AFTC/PZZF), 5 S Wolf Ave, Bldg 2800, Edwards AFB, CA 93524.

2. Nature and/or Description of the Action: $89,306

This is a brand-name determination restricting open-market competition to the NVIDIA Grace/ Blackwell processing and computing architecture for the acquisition of one (1) turnkey, high-performance artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) localized laboratory workstation. The technical baseline is established as the Exxact Valence Workstation (P/N: VWS-158270643).

3. Citation to the Appropriate Regulation:

(Contracting Officer Instruction: Select the applicable authority for this acquisition)

RFO 8.401 and GSAR 538.7104-3(a) (FSS Orders): The circumstances of the acquisition deem only one source reasonably capable of providing the products, services, or solutions.

RFO 11.204(a)(2)(ii) (Brand Name): The particular brand name, product, or feature is essential to the Government's requirements, and market research indicates other companies' similar products, or products lacking the particular feature, do not meet the agency's needs or cannot be modified to meet the agency's minimum needs,.

RFO 12.102(a) (Commercial Products and Services): Only one source is available,.

RFO 13.101(b) (Noncommercial Products and Services): Only one source is reasonably available (e.g., urgency, exclusive licensing agreements, brand-name, or industrial mobilization),.

4. Findings:

The 812 TSS/ENT AI/ML section requires a specialized, localized laboratory workstation featuring an integrated NVIDIA 72-Core Grace CPU and NVIDIA B300 GPU (GB300) superchip, 496GB LPDDR5X + 252GB HBM3e cohesive memory, and a secondary NVIDIA RTX PRO 2000 Blackwell GPU. The laboratory’s compiler tools (CUDA), software developer stacks, and pre-compiled machine learning frameworks are proprietary and natively compiled to run exclusively on NVIDIA's parallel-processing GPU cores. Introducing any alternative architecture (such as AMD or Intel) would render the laboratory's existing software pipelines and pre-compiled models incompatible, necessitating a complete codebase re-engineering. This would cause a minimum of six (6) months in project delays and redundant engineering labor costs that cannot be recovered through open competition.

Restricting the underlying hardware architecture to NVIDIA Grace/Blackwell processing elements is technically vital to support the ongoing flight test mission and prevent technical and operational waste.

Chronological Market Research and Vehicle Clearing (RFO Part 8): Market research was initiated by the mission partner to establish the technical baseline, and the base business office (BECO) cleared the DPAS inventory on 11 June 2026. The ITIB approved the requirement (ITIB-26-499) on 25 June 2026, and the AFMC CIO Representative approved the CCS-3 Waiver (AFMC-26-098) on 15 June 2026. In accordance with the priority of sources in RFO Part 8, an RFI was posted on GSA eBuy (Schedule 54151S), which failed to yield responsive or viable commercial quotes. A subsequent RFI (#385584) was posted on NASA SEWP V (Group A, NAICS 334111) and yielded responses from Sterling Computers and CounterTrade (CPI). However, technical evaluation of these quotes confirmed that these specific, newly-released high-performance workstation configurations were non-contract items on their active SEWP V contracts (classifying them as open-market quotes). While the contract holders offered to submit contract modification requests to have the items added, doing so would require a lengthy contract addition process and a redundant, subsequent re-solicitation anyway.

Open Market Strategy: To maintain the critical flight test mission schedule, the contracting activity has bypassed established contract sources under RFO Part 8 and transitioned this requirement to an open-market competitive RFQ publicized on SAM.gov as a 100% Total Small Business Set-Aside. This open-market approach maximizes competition among authorized small business system integrators and secures the most advantageous delivery terms.

5. Determination: Based on the findings above, the proposed sole source or brand name action is justified under the applicable regulation.

6. Signatory Authority: (Contracting Officer Instruction: In accordance with DAF Approval Authorities Matrix PM 26-C-11 Matrix Item 51 for RFO 13.101(b) actions and GSAR 538.7104-3(a) for FSS orders, the Contracting Officer is the approval authority for these determinations).

Christina Day, NHIII, Contracting Officer

Aug 5, 2026

DETERMINATION & FINDINGS

Authority to Solicit from a Single Source (at or below the SAT)

3. Citation to the Appropriate Regulation:

(Contracting Officer Instruction: Select the applicable authority for this acquisition) 2024.07.10.1.

4. Findings:

5. Determination: Based on the findings above, the proposed sole source or brand name action is justified under the applicable regulation.

6. Signatory Authority: (Contracting Officer Instruction: In accordance with DAF Approval Authorities Matrix PM 26-C-11 Matrix Item 51 for RFO 13.101(b) actions and GSAR 538.7104-3(a) for FSS orders, the Contracting Officer is the approval authority for these determinations).