Hanford Nuclear Reservation with Northwest Energy's nuclear reactor letting off steam in the background. (Photo by Tobin, via Flickr, Creative Commons)

President Joe Biden has signed an ambitious executive order on artificial intelligence that seeks to ensure the infrastructure needed for advanced AI operations like data centers can be built quickly

The order calls for leasing federal sites owned by Defense and Energy departments to host gigawatt-scale AI data centers and new clean power facilities - to address enormous power needs on a short time frame.

Developers will be required to use clean power sources to fully meet the sky-high energy demands of several new data centers.

President Joe Biden has signed an ambitious executive order on artificial intelligence that seeks to ensure the infrastructure needed for advanced AI operations like data centers can be built quickly and at scale in the United States.