Expanding Federal Land Accessibility for Artificial Intelligence Infrastructure Development

Biden administration opens up federal land to AI data centers

With less than a week left in office, President Joe Biden has issued an executive order that will allow private sector AI companies to lease federal sites owned by the Department of Defense and Department of Energy in order to build AI data centers. The move is aimed at strengthening the US’s global leadership on AI and preventing domestic AI companies from relying on other countries for access to AI tools and infrastructure.

In this new initiative, AI companies will be required to bring online enough clean energy resources to match the electricity needed to power the data centers they lease. This means that these companies will need to invest in renewable energy solutions such as solar panels or wind turbines to offset the carbon footprint of their operations.

Notably, this executive order does not provide any financial support or grants for AI companies to build these data centers on federal land. Instead, AI companies will be required to pay the full cost of building, operating, and maintaining these facilities.

The White House emphasized that this executive order is intended to strengthen and secure the US’s global leadership in AI and prevent domestic AI companies from depending on other countries for access to AI tools and infrastructure.

Source: techcrunch.com