(Bloomberg) -- President Joe Biden’s administration is weighing whether to make federal land available to help US tech giants build data centers to drive development of artificial intelligence.
The plan is focused on how to identify a small number of federal sites that could house data centers in ways that would speed construction and position them near clean energy, an official familiar with the plans said. It’s not clear whether President-elect Donald Trump will maintain the initiative.
Biden’s National Economic Council director, Lael Brainard, alluded to the effort in a speech Thursday at the Brookings Institution, where she unveiled the Biden administration’s supply chain review. The review shows the government seeking to implement a systematic approach to addressing the needs of key sectors like AI.
In an interview ahead of her speech, Brainard said the administration wants to make sure the US stays at the front of the race to develop generative AI.
“What we’re working on is actions to retain that key AI power infrastructure here in America, to address land, power and permitting constraints,” Brainard said in the interview. “That way we can not only address our economic and national security imperatives, but also help to ensure this infrastructure is powered by clean energy that also makes sure there is no effect on electricity costs on American consumers.”
Speaking at the event in Washington on Thursday, Brainard said the administration is “committed to maintaining US preeminence in the most advanced forms of AI because of the national security and economic implications” of the sector and its growth.
“We started to hear a lot about how quickly the compute power for the most advanced training models was growing, and hearing from people in this arena that they were looking to move to other countries because they were getting big, cheap sources of what was mostly not clean energy elsewhere,” she added.
The White House has repeatedly invited corporate leaders from leading AI companies to meet with administration officials. A sit-down that included OpenAI CEO Sam Altman in September informed the White House approach. Altman pitched the White House on the need for large-scale data centers that use as much power as an entire city.
OpenAI Pitched White House on Unprecedented Data Center Buildout
In the interview, Brainard likened the issue to the computer chip sector, whereby the US fell behind and had to catch up, including with subsidies in one of Biden’s flagship pieces of legislation, the CHIPS and Science Act.
“To maintain America’s preeminence, the private sector needs to be able to build large scale AI infrastructure here in the US, including requisite compute power,” she said.
Brainard downplayed the role the administration might play in actually building power sources for the data centers, but instead said the White House is focused on ensuring power transmission and availability of clean sources.
“It is more being a partner to the private sector and supporting the private sector, really, who has the exercise and financial wherewithal in building the necessary data centers,” but the federal government has power to facilitate permitting and power transmission, she said.
“We’ve certainly heard loud and clear from leaders in the sector on the kinds of compute power needs they have, the massive scale, the timeline and some of the challenges that they need some help navigating.”
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