Biden administration opens federal lands to AI data centers

With less than a week left in office, President Joe Biden isn’t done making his mark on the AI ​​industry.

President Biden issued Executive order That will allow private-sector AI companies on Tuesday to lease federal sites owned by the Department of Defense and the Department of Energy in order to build AI data centers. Companies that build data centers on these sites will be required to bring enough clean energy resources online to match the electricity needed to power the data centers.

This is not a grant program. AI companies that build data centers on these federal sites will need to pay the full cost of building, operating, and maintaining those centers.

In a press release, the White House said that this order aims to strengthen and secure US global leadership in the field of artificial intelligence and prevent domestic AI companies from relying on other countries for access to artificial intelligence tools and infrastructure. She added that appropriate resources will be given to these departments to ensure they are able to screen and approve bids for federal sites quickly and efficiently.

The Executive Order’s focus on renewable energy here is notable. Data centers currently consume 4% of all energy in the United States, according to a report Electric Power Research InstituteThis number is expected to rise to 9% by the end of the decade. In general, power demand in data centers is expected to rise Double within the next five yearsThis is according to a report by JLL.

This executive order comes just one day after the Biden administration announced a new order A set of rules and guidelines Regarding AI chip exports it has imposed further restrictions on a number of countries, including adversaries such as China and Russia, while also imposing a quota of 50,000 chips for the majority of the rest of the world.

The caveat is that these orders come just a week before Donald Trump returns to the presidency, when he is expected to reverse many of the policies of the Biden administration.