The Biden-Harris Administration convened a pivotal roundtable at the White House, bringing together industry leaders and government officials to strengthen the U.S. position in AI infrastructure. Focused on clean energy, workforce development, and national security, the discussions aimed to ensure the United States remains a global leader in AI innovation. New initiatives were announced to drive collaboration between public and private sectors, fostering job creation and sustainable growth in AI datacenter development.
Readout of White House Roundtable on U.S. Leadership in AI Infrastructure
Today, as part of the Biden-Harris Administration’s comprehensive strategy for responsible innovation, the White House convened leaders from hyperscalers, artificial intelligence (AI) companies, datacenter operators, and utility companies to discuss steps to ensure the United States continues to lead the world in AI. Participants considered strategies to meet clean energy, permitting, and workforce requirements for developing large-scale AI datacenters and power infrastructure needed for advanced AI operations in the United States.
At the roundtable, White House Chief of Staff Jeff Zients, White House Deputy Chief of Staff Bruce Reed, National Economic Advisor Lael Brainard, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, National Climate Advisor Ali Zaidi, Senior Advisor to the President for International Climate Policy John Podesta, Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm, Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo, and industry leaders committed to partnering closely to maintain American leadership in AI that will achieve shared national security, economic, and environmental goals. Developing and operating leading AI in the United States is vital for protecting national security and ensuring that AI systems are safe, secure, and trustworthy. Participants also discussed ways to create good paying jobs for workers, including roles for pipefitters and electrical workers, and keep energy costs low for consumers. The United States is the global leader in AI, and we are taking action to ensure future AI infrastructure creates jobs for American workers, and is built in the United States and powered by clean energy.
To accelerate public-private collaboration in advancing U.S. leadership in AI, the Administration is announcing several new actions following today’s convening:
- The White House is launching a new Task Force on AI Datacenter Infrastructure to coordinate policy across government. Led by the National Economic Council, National Security Council, and the White House Deputy Chief of Staff’s office, the interagency Task Force will provide streamlined coordination on policies to advance datacenter development operations in line with economic, national security, and environmental goals. The Task Force will work with AI infrastructure leaders to identify opportunities and work with agencies to ensure adequate resourcing, designate agency single points of contact, and properly prioritize AI datacenter development to reflect the importance of these projects to American national security and economic interests. Finally, the Task Force will build on recent work to identify existing authorities and areas where legislative action is needed to modify or strengthen federal authorities to support AI datacenter development.
- The Administration will scale up technical assistance to Federal, state, and local authorities handling datacenter permitting. The Permitting Council will work with AI datacenter developers to set comprehensive timelines for Federal agency action and will allocate funds to agencies that accelerate evaluations for FAST-41 covered clean energy projects that support datacenters.
- The Department of Energy (DOE) is creating an AI datacenter engagement team to leverage programs to support AI data center development. DOE has curated a suite of resources – including loans, grants, tax credits, and technical assistance – that can help datacenter owners and operators secure clean, reliable energy solutions. DOE is also planning a series of convenings with datacenter developers, clean energy solutions providers, grid operators, and other stakeholders to drive development of innovative solutions.
- The Department of Energy will continue to share resources on repurposing closed coal sites with datacenter developers. Retired and retiring coal sites provide a unique opportunity for redevelopment of energy infrastructure that can power new data centers. Existing land and facilities at the power plant site can be repurposed, such as electricity infrastructure for connections to the grid. Combining site features with financial incentives available from Federal or state and local authorities can make attractive opportunities for project developers.
- The US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) will identify Nationwide Permits that can help expedite the construction of eligible AI datacenters and share that information with AI datacenter developers to expedite critical projects.
- Industry leaders at today’s convening committed to enhance cooperation with policy makers and explore further solutions, through ongoing dialogue and collaboration.
- Hyperscalers at today’s convening reaffirmed their commitments to achieving net zero carbon emissions and to procuring clean energy to power their operations.
Each of these steps advances significant work already undertaken by the Biden-Harris Administration to ensure the United States leads the way in responsible AI innovation and development, including through President Biden’s landmark 2023 Executive Order on AI. These actions will enable datacenters catalyzing the industries of the future to be built here in the United States by American workers.
Participants in the convening included:
Industry:
Andres Gluski, President and CEO, AES
Ruth Porat, President and Chief Investment Officer, Alphabet
Matt Garman, CEO of Amazon Web Services (AWS), Amazon
Dario Amodei, CEO, Anthropic
Michael Intrator, CEO, CoreWeave
Arshad Mansoor, President and CEO, Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI)
Calvin Butler, President and CEO, Exelon
Javier Olivan, Chief Operating Officer, Meta
Brad Smith, President and Vice Chairman, Microsoft
Jensen Huang, President and CEO, Nvidia
Sam Altman, CEO, OpenAI
Chad Williams, Chairman and CEO, Quality Technology Services (QTS)
Government:
Jeff Zients, Assistant to the President and Chief of Staff
Jennifer Granholm, Secretary of Energy
Gina Raimondo, Secretary of Commerce
Bruce Reed, Assistant to the President and Deputy Chief of Staff
Lael Brainard, Assistant to the President and National Economic Advisor
Jake Sullivan, Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs
John Podesta, Senior Advisor to the President for International Climate Policy
Ali Zaidi, Assistant to the President and National Climate Advisor
Kristine Lucius, Deputy Assistant to the President and Domestic Policy Advisor to the Vice President
Navtej Dhillon, Deputy Assistant to the President and Deputy Director of the National Economic Council
Neelesh Nerurkar, Senior Advisor for Energy and Climate, National Economic Council
Jack Groarke, Senior Policy Advisor, National Economic Council
Ben Buchanan, Special Advisor for Artificial Intelligence
Tarun Chhabra, Deputy Assistant to the President and Coordinator for Technology and National Security
Benjamin Della Rocca, Director for Technology and National Security
Christopher Davis, Chief of Staff, Department of Energy
Carla Frisch, Acting Executive Director and Principal Deputy Director, Office of Policy, Department of Energy
Ted Dean, Counselor to the Secretary, Department of Commerce
September 12 2024 White House. Briefing Room. Washington, DC. USA
Sources: Midtown Tribune news, WH.gov
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Critical Questions Surrounding the White House’s AI Infrastructure Strategy
- Is the Biden-Harris Administration prioritizing AI infrastructure development at the expense of other critical national concerns, such as healthcare or education?
- How realistic are the goals for clean energy AI datacenters, given the existing challenges in the U.S. energy grid and the slow pace of renewable energy adoption?
- Will the partnership between the federal government and private tech companies lead to fair competition, or could it strengthen monopolies in the AI industry?
- How will the administration ensure that the creation of new jobs in AI datacenters benefits American workers, rather than relying heavily on foreign labor or automation?
- Is the push for AI leadership addressing potential ethical concerns, such as data privacy, cybersecurity, and the long-term social impacts of artificial intelligence?
- Given that the hottest temperature recorded in the U.S. was in 1913, why does the Biden-Harris Administration continue to push for aggressive climate policies despite the historical data?
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