President Joe Biden is leaving an indelible imprint on the AI sector as his term draws to a swift close. Via a recent executive order, he has given private tech firms the approval to build AI data centers on federal territories supervised by the Departments of Defense and Energy. The stipulation is that these companies must produce enough renewable energy to match the electrical demands of the data centers.
Despite the availability of these grounds, the order doesn’t cover the construction, operation, and maintenance costs of these data centers. AI firms must bear the expense.
According to the White House, the initiative is designed to fortify the U.S.’s AI global superiority while reducing dependency on foreign soil for AI tools and infrastructure. Efficient systems will be put in place to vet and approve bids and proposals for these sites.
The data centers are expected to garner 9% of all U.S. power consumption by the decade’s end, a drastic leap from the current 4% it utilizes, as per the Electric Power Research Institute’s data. JLL projects that the demand for power from data centers will double within the next half-decade.
This order was hot on the heels of new regulations by the Biden administration restricting AI chip exports to countries including China and Russia and setting a 50,000-chip quota for the larger global community. However, pending President Donald Trump’s return to office, these recent policy advancements might face a reversal.
Original source: Read the full article on TechCrunch
