Advancing United States Leadership in Artificial Intelligence Infrastructure
This Executive Order (EO) directs the United States to accelerate and shape the domestic development of artificial intelligence infrastructure, with a strong emphasis on frontier AI data centers and associated clean-energy resources. Its core purposes are national security, economic competitiveness, and leadership in AI, while also prioritizing energy reliability, a competitive tech ecosystem, community safeguards, and high labor and security standards. The order creates a framework for federal sites and private investment to build, own, or operate frontier AI infrastructure in the United States, paired with requirements for clean power, cybersecurity, supply-chain resilience, and environmental and community protections. It envisions leveraging federal land, streamlined permitting, and competitive leasing processes to attract private partners, including small and medium-sized entities, to deploy frontier AI data centers and the necessary transmission and energy-generation resources. The EO sets concrete timeline-driven steps across multiple federal agencies (notably Defense, Energy, Interior, Commerce, and Energy regulators), including site identification on federal lands, regional designations for geothermal development, and the launch of competitive solicitations for private leasing of federal sites. It also establishes governance for cost responsibility, labor standards, security requirements, and collaborations with the private sector and regulatory bodies to evaluate AI models for national-security purposes. Overall, it aims to ensure the United States remains at the forefront of AI infrastructure while aligning development with clean-energy goals and safeguards for workers and communities.
Key Points
- 1Guiding principles and policy targets: The development of AI infrastructure should strengthen national security, economic leadership, clean-energy integration, consumer cost stability, and worker/community benefits, while promoting a fair, open AI ecosystem and secure supply chains.
- 2Federal-site strategy and competitive leasing: By early 2025, DoD and DOE must identify a minimum of three suitable federal sites each for frontier AI data centers and related clean-energy facilities, with a goal of permitting and approval for frontier AI work by 2025 and operation by 2027. The Interior Department (via BLM) will also identify land for clean-energy facilities and potential interconnections.
- 3Land and permitting framework: The order directs coordinated, competitive solicitations to lease federal land for frontier AI infrastructure, including mechanisms to designate site coordinates, interconnection details, and plans for construction, operation, and decommissioning, with a framework that may allow private ownership or joint private-public arrangements. It requires verifying site availability and legal authority to lease or grant rights of way.
- 4Energy and grid integration requirements: Non-Federal parties must procure new clean generation resources to meet AI data center needs, match hourly electricity use, and ensure transmission and interconnection readiness. The order emphasizes clean energy generation, transmission upgrades, and minimizing impact on electricity prices.
- 5Standards, security, and collaboration: The plan calls for adherence to cyber, supply-chain, and physical security standards, guided by NIST and the AI Safety Institute, and requires non-Federal parties to sign MOUs with Commerce for model evaluation and risk assessment. It also includes lab-security measures and limits on foreign or sensitive involvement where national security is a concern.