Amid his final days of Presidency, President Joe Biden has been actively passing executive orders, some particularly crucial for the technology sector. After proposing new export rules for AI chips (specifically for GPUs) that target China, President Biden has now signed a fresh executive order on Tuesday (14 January) to address the massive energy requirements of AI data centers. Considering data centers are the fundamental pillar of rapidly growing artificial intelligence technology, the US government has now decided to provide federal support for the energy infrastructure needed to sustain them.
This order outlines a detailed plan to ensure the energy needs of AI data centers. The government has divided the measures into two main parts. First, leasing sites from federal departments and then establishing clean energy facilities on them. Specifically, the order calls for leasing federal sites owned by the Departments of Defense and Energy. Private players will then be engaged to build power generation plants on these sites. In fact, some of these locations may also host new gigawatt-scale AI data centers.
However, the US government has tied this decision to national security, similar to its other recent directives concerning tech policy, particularly AI. The Biden administration has framed the order as an effort to strike a balance between improving economic competitiveness, ensuring national security, promoting AI safety, and advancing renewable energy initiatives.
“I am signing an historic Executive Order to 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,” President Joe Biden stated in the order.
We all know that the amount of computing power and energy required for training and operating AI models is continuously increasing with the advancements in large language models and data sets. The US government itself estimates that as most AI players seek to operate data centers, the energy demand could reach as high as 5 gigawatts (GW) of capacity by 2028.
Importantly, this order contains an interesting provision regarding the use of leased lands. The government mandates that companies wishing to use federal land for AI data centers purchase a ‘significant share’ of US-made semiconductors.
This order comes just a day after AI trendsetter OpenAI released its Economic Blueprint. In this document, the creator of ChatGPT proposes several measures to maintain US leadership in artificial intelligence (AI) innovation. OpenAI identifies chips, data, and energy as the essential pillars of AI success in its proposal.
Energy – preferably clean energy – has always been, and will continue to be, a key element for sustaining technology. According to a Deloitte report, AI data centers are projected to consume up to 90 terawatt-hours (TWh) of power annually by 2026, marking a tenfold increase from 2022 levels.
