By David Shepardson
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Joe Biden signed an executive order on Tuesday to provide federal support to address massive energy needs for fast-growing advanced artificial intelligence data centers, the White House said.
The order calls for leasing federal sites owned by Defense and Energy departments to host gigawatt-scale AI data centers and new clean power facilities - to address enormous power needs on a short time frame.
Biden said the order will "accelerate the speed at which we build the next generation of AI infrastructure here in America, in a way that enhances economic competitiveness, national security, AI safety, and clean energy."
The order also requires companies tapping federal land for AI data centers to purchase an "appropriate share" of American-made semiconductors. The number of purchases required would be worked out on a case-by-case basis for each project and comes as the Biden administration is spending more than $30 billion to subsidize U.S. chip production.
"It's really vital that we ensure that the AI industry can build out the infrastructure for training and using powerful AI models here in the United States," White House technology adviser Tarun Chhabra told reporters.
He noted the volumes of computing power and electricity needed to train and operate frontier models - a term for the most advanced AI models available - "are increasing rapidly and set to surge even more."
He said by around 2028 leading AI developers will be seeking to operate data centers with as much as five gigawatts of capacity for training AI models.
The Commerce Department said Monday it would further restrict AI chip and technology exports to keep advanced computing power in the United States and among its allies while finding more ways to block China's access.
"From a national security standpoint, it's really critical to find a pathway for building the data centers and power infrastructure to support frontier AI operations here in the United States, to ensure that the most powerful AI models continue to be trained and stored securely here in the United States," Chhabra said.
Biden also wants agencies to facilitate interconnection to the electric grid, address permitting obligations expeditiously, and advance transmission development around federal sites.
Chhabra noted AI systems developed today are already "demonstrating really remarkable capabilities for military applications or potential use, including really significant risks when it comes to engineering biological or chemical, radiological or nuclear weapons, for cyber attacks."
He added ensuring domestic data centers "will also prevent our adversaries from accessing these powerful systems to the detriment of our military and our national security."