US energy department invites AI data center development at Los Alamos and other federal lands

The U.S. Department of Energy said it has identified 16 federal sites, including storied nuclear research laboratories such as Los Alamos, where tech companies could build data centers in a push to accelerate commercial development of artificial intelligence technology.

The sites are “uniquely positioned for rapid data center construction, including in-place energy infrastructure with the ability to fast-track permitting for new energy generation such as nuclear,” the agency said in a statement Thursday.

The move follows an executive order signed in January by outgoing President Joe Biden that sought to remove hurdles for AI data center expansion in the U.S. while also encouraging those data centers, which require large amounts of electricity, to be powered with renewable energy.

While President Donald Trump has since sought to erase most of Biden's signature AI policies, he made clear after returning to the White House that he had no interest in rescinding Biden's data center order.

“I’d like to see federal lands opened up for data centers," Trump said in January. "I think they’re going to be very important.”

The lands identified as potential sites include a number of national laboratories, such as the New Mexico-centered Los Alamos and Sandia laboratories and Oak Ridge in Tennessee.

While the tech industry has long relied on data centers to run online services, from email and social media to financial transactions, new AI technology behind popular chatbots and generative AI tools requires even more powerful computation to build and operate.

A report released by the Department of Energy late last year estimated that the electricity needed for data centers in the U.S. tripled over the past decade and is projected to double or triple again by 2028 when it could consume up to 12% of the nation’s electricity.

The United States, under both presidents, has been speeding up efforts to license and build a new generation of nuclear reactors to supply carbon-free electricity.

While Biden's executive order focused on powering AI infrastructure with clean energy sources such as “geothermal, solar, wind, and nuclear,” Thursday's statement from Trump's energy department focused only on nuclear. But in a lengthy request for information sought from data center and energy developers, the agency outlines a variety of electricity sources available at each site, from solar arrays to gas turbines.