Biden orders federal site and clean-power planning for AI infrastructure

President Joe Biden signed a January 14, 2025 executive order directing federal agencies to accelerate domestic artificial-intelligence infrastructure. The order focused on leasing federal sites, including Department of Defense and Department of Energy sites, for frontier AI data centers and clean-power facilities; improving permitting and grid interconnection; and requiring developers using federal land to meet labor, security, domestic-supply-chain, and clean-energy expectations. The order framed AI infrastructure as a national-security and economic-competitiveness issue because advanced AI systems require large computing clusters and major electricity supply. The action mattered because it tied AI policy to land use, energy demand, grid planning, national security, and who gets to build and profit from the next generation of computing infrastructure.