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Summary of the concrete actions: 1. Early 2025: Identify Federal sites for AI data centers, clean energy facilities, and geothermal zones. Streamline permittin

Summary of the concrete actions: 1. Early 2025: Identify Federal sites for AI data centers, clean energy facilities, and geothermal zones. Streamline permitting processes and draft reporting requirements for AI infrastructure. Develop a plan for global collaboration on trusted AI infrastructure. 2. By Mid-2025: Issue solicitations for AI infrastructure projects on Federal sites. Select winning proposals and announce plans for site preparation. Plan grid upgrades and set energy efficiency targets for AI data centers. 3. By Late 2025: Finalize all permits and complete environmental reviews. Begin construction of AI infrastructure and prioritize grid enhancements. 4. By 2027: Ensure AI data centers are operational, utilizing clean energy to meet power demands. 5. Ongoing: Advance research on energy efficiency and supply chain resilience. Report on AI infrastructure impacts and collaborate internationally on clean energy and trusted AI development.

Workaccount2 2y ago
With the incoming admin I can't imagine anything other than huge nat gas plants being built to power these data centers...
- culi 2y ago
  UN confirmed that we zoomed passed the 1.5°C mark in 2024. It feels like we're in the "learn how to grow food for you and your community" stage https://news.un.org/en/story/2025/01/1158891 https://news.un.org/en/story/2025/01/1158891
- davis 2y ago
  It doesn't matter what the incoming admin thinks, it just matters what makes the most economic sense. If interconnection queues are backed up and the grid is lacking the electricity required, offgrid might be the way to go: https://www.offgridai.us/ https://www.offgridai.us/ People assume gas plants are the fastest and easiest to build and power but you have to get the natural gas to the plant. Nat gas pipelines take years to build and also there are gas turbine supply issues. Offgrid solar + battery solves all of these.
- hammock 2y ago
  The EO talks a lot about prioritizing clean power.
  - Blackthorn 2y ago
    Somehow, I don't think the incoming executive cares about that.
  - Jtsummers 2y ago
    It's an executive order, not a law. The next president is free to issue his own and rescind it in part or in whole.
digdugdirk 2y ago
That's actually a wildly short timeframe for a large political plan like this. Going from idea to breaking ground on a massive infrastructure project in a calendar year? It'll be interesting to see if this turns into a political/legal quagmire or not, since it's ostensibly aligned with both parties (donors) interests.
- CapricornNoble 2y ago
  Agreed, it seems wildly optimistic to me. I was working at a military installation command last year and it would often take 6 months just to survey some existing buildings for renovation + repurposing and trying to get those plans approved. Stuff like "repaint these walls, mitigate mold, and install sub-divided chain-link fence in this warehouse" was busting our timelines. I'm assuming that just getting the paperwork right for a Federal government construction project is an equally-huge lift.
  - tsunamifury 2y ago
    The contracts will go to Google and Amazon who can lay down a Data center in months
- michaelt 2y ago
  Depends on the implementation details. If you could identify, say, a defunct aluminium smelting plant? It'll probably have access to 30 megawatts of power. You'd have to give nvidia quite a lot of money get enough GPUs to consume that.
rayiner 2y ago
That schedule is impossible. Given the amount of power data centers take, and the fact that the government is new to building them, the environmental review process and lawsuits will take years.
- ricardobeat 2y ago
  Automobile manufacturers can bring a plant from foundation to production in under a year, it’s not that far-fetched. A datacenter is orders of magnitude less complex.
  - switchbak 2y ago
    My understanding is that it's not the data center that's the problem, it's the energy required to run them. This is especially demanding with us rubbing AI over everything and using insane amounts of energy in the process. Ie: making a new data center is easy. Making new power plants quickly - not so much. But hey, at least there's some renewed political will, better than nothing.
    - ricardobeat 2y ago
      I don’t have sources to back it up, but am reasonably sure these factories consume even more energy than a datacenter, possibly in the GW range. Powering robots, welders, and all kinds of mechanical systems in addition to electronics is very power intensive. As another data point, Apple has been doing 100% renewables for their DCs since 2014. A wind farm can definitely be built in months, and energy companies will always follow the money. Site selection will definitely take energy availability into account as well.
- hammock 2y ago
  The EO proposes to use federal land, so that ought to facilitate shortcutting some of the process.
- DannyBee 2y ago
  I agree in general, but equipment mainly due to lead times and not permit/etc times. Remember it's federal land, so they can't be held to state permitting or building codes, etc, only what they choose to (IE if their agency adopted it explicitly) Having seen lots of datacenters constructed over the years - it's tractable in terms of the bureaucracy parts if they want it to be - because they can mostly ignore them. So for me it breaks down like: Building construction, it could be done. Power provision - hard to say without knowing the sites. some would be clear yes, some would be clear no. Probably more nos than yeses. Filling it with AI related anything at a useful scale - no, the chips don't exist unless you steal them from someoene else, or you are putting older surplus stuff in.
m4rtink 2y ago
Provided all this centralized governement owned and run infra somehow gets built, what it would be actually doing to warrant the expense ? I am quite skeptical in this regard. :P
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
- Terr_ 2y ago
  Well, it would funnel tax dollars to already-established companies that don't need the subsidies. :p I have some sympathy for certain domestic capabilities (e.g. chip fabrication) but this "AI" bubble cross-infecting government policy is frustrating to watch.
  - phkahler 2y ago
    >> Well, it would funnel tax dollars to already-established companies that don't need the subsidies. Yeah it sounded like a gift to nVidia. My prediction was that nVidia would ride the quantum wave by offering systems to simulate quantum computers with huge classical ones. They would do that by asking the government to fund such systems for "quantum algorithm research" since nobody really knows what to use QC for yet. This move primes that relationship using the current AI hype boom. So look for their quantum simulation-optimized chips in the near future. GPU, gpgpu, crypto, ray tracing, AI, quantum. nvidia is a master at milking dollars from tech fads.
  - JohnBooty 2y ago
    It's hard to know how much this effort is about the government's belief in AI, and how much of it is about supporting the technology sector while using AI as a convenient buzzword. I think, though, that even if LLMs turn out to be a dead-end and don't progress much further... there are a lot of benefits here. One of the US's key strategic advantages is brain drain. We are one of the world's premier destinations for highly educated, highly skilled people from other countries. Their loss, our gain. There are of course myriad other countries where they could go, many of them more attractive than the US in various ways. Every country in the world is in a sense competing for this talent.
citizenpaul 2y ago
Why in reading that do I only see "enact police state"
xyzzyz 2y ago
This is pretty ridiculous. US is already an undisputed world leader in building data centers. Our companies are great at building data centers already at their own initiative, and they don’t need government’s subsidies to do that. This just seems like a subsidy to “clean energy” industry, disguised as industrial strategy.
spare_farts 2y ago
[dead]

Workaccount2 2y ago

With the incoming admin I can't imagine anything other than huge nat gas plants being built to power these data centers...

culi 2y ago
UN confirmed that we zoomed passed the 1.5°C mark in 2024. It feels like we're in the "learn how to grow food for you and your community" stage https://news.un.org/en/story/2025/01/1158891 https://news.un.org/en/story/2025/01/1158891
davis 2y ago
It doesn't matter what the incoming admin thinks, it just matters what makes the most economic sense. If interconnection queues are backed up and the grid is lacking the electricity required, offgrid might be the way to go: https://www.offgridai.us/ https://www.offgridai.us/ People assume gas plants are the fastest and easiest to build and power but you have to get the natural gas to the plant. Nat gas pipelines take years to build and also there are gas turbine supply issues. Offgrid solar + battery solves all of these.
hammock 2y ago
The EO talks a lot about prioritizing clean power.
- Blackthorn 2y ago
  Somehow, I don't think the incoming executive cares about that.
- Jtsummers 2y ago
  It's an executive order, not a law. The next president is free to issue his own and rescind it in part or in whole.

digdugdirk 2y ago

That's actually a wildly short timeframe for a large political plan like this. Going from idea to breaking ground on a massive infrastructure project in a calendar year? It'll be interesting to see if this turns into a political/legal quagmire or not, since it's ostensibly aligned with both parties (donors) interests.

CapricornNoble 2y ago
Agreed, it seems wildly optimistic to me. I was working at a military installation command last year and it would often take 6 months just to survey some existing buildings for renovation + repurposing and trying to get those plans approved. Stuff like "repaint these walls, mitigate mold, and install sub-divided chain-link fence in this warehouse" was busting our timelines. I'm assuming that just getting the paperwork right for a Federal government construction project is an equally-huge lift.
- tsunamifury 2y ago
  The contracts will go to Google and Amazon who can lay down a Data center in months
michaelt 2y ago
Depends on the implementation details. If you could identify, say, a defunct aluminium smelting plant? It'll probably have access to 30 megawatts of power. You'd have to give nvidia quite a lot of money get enough GPUs to consume that.

rayiner 2y ago

That schedule is impossible. Given the amount of power data centers take, and the fact that the government is new to building them, the environmental review process and lawsuits will take years.

ricardobeat 2y ago
Automobile manufacturers can bring a plant from foundation to production in under a year, it’s not that far-fetched. A datacenter is orders of magnitude less complex.
- switchbak 2y ago
  My understanding is that it's not the data center that's the problem, it's the energy required to run them. This is especially demanding with us rubbing AI over everything and using insane amounts of energy in the process. Ie: making a new data center is easy. Making new power plants quickly - not so much. But hey, at least there's some renewed political will, better than nothing.
  - ricardobeat 2y ago
    I don’t have sources to back it up, but am reasonably sure these factories consume even more energy than a datacenter, possibly in the GW range. Powering robots, welders, and all kinds of mechanical systems in addition to electronics is very power intensive. As another data point, Apple has been doing 100% renewables for their DCs since 2014. A wind farm can definitely be built in months, and energy companies will always follow the money. Site selection will definitely take energy availability into account as well.
hammock 2y ago
The EO proposes to use federal land, so that ought to facilitate shortcutting some of the process.
DannyBee 2y ago
I agree in general, but equipment mainly due to lead times and not permit/etc times. Remember it's federal land, so they can't be held to state permitting or building codes, etc, only what they choose to (IE if their agency adopted it explicitly) Having seen lots of datacenters constructed over the years - it's tractable in terms of the bureaucracy parts if they want it to be - because they can mostly ignore them. So for me it breaks down like: Building construction, it could be done. Power provision - hard to say without knowing the sites. some would be clear yes, some would be clear no. Probably more nos than yeses. Filling it with AI related anything at a useful scale - no, the chips don't exist unless you steal them from someoene else, or you are putting older surplus stuff in.

m4rtink 2y ago

Provided all this centralized governement owned and run infra somehow gets built, what it would be actually doing to warrant the expense ? I am quite skeptical in this regard. :P

deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
Terr_ 2y ago
Well, it would funnel tax dollars to already-established companies that don't need the subsidies. :p I have some sympathy for certain domestic capabilities (e.g. chip fabrication) but this "AI" bubble cross-infecting government policy is frustrating to watch.
- phkahler 2y ago
  >> Well, it would funnel tax dollars to already-established companies that don't need the subsidies. Yeah it sounded like a gift to nVidia. My prediction was that nVidia would ride the quantum wave by offering systems to simulate quantum computers with huge classical ones. They would do that by asking the government to fund such systems for "quantum algorithm research" since nobody really knows what to use QC for yet. This move primes that relationship using the current AI hype boom. So look for their quantum simulation-optimized chips in the near future. GPU, gpgpu, crypto, ray tracing, AI, quantum. nvidia is a master at milking dollars from tech fads.
- JohnBooty 2y ago
  It's hard to know how much this effort is about the government's belief in AI, and how much of it is about supporting the technology sector while using AI as a convenient buzzword. I think, though, that even if LLMs turn out to be a dead-end and don't progress much further... there are a lot of benefits here. One of the US's key strategic advantages is brain drain. We are one of the world's premier destinations for highly educated, highly skilled people from other countries. Their loss, our gain. There are of course myriad other countries where they could go, many of them more attractive than the US in various ways. Every country in the world is in a sense competing for this talent.

citizenpaul 2y ago

Why in reading that do I only see "enact police state"

xyzzyz 2y ago

This is pretty ridiculous. US is already an undisputed world leader in building data centers. Our companies are great at building data centers already at their own initiative, and they don’t need government’s subsidies to do that. This just seems like a subsidy to “clean energy” industry, disguised as industrial strategy.

spare_farts 2y ago

[dead]