President Joe Biden this week issued one of his last executive orders, addressing the race to build domestic data centers and clean energy plants in order to retain America’s leadership in artificial intelligence.

President Biden issued an executive order to permit data centers on federal lands in a move aimed at bolstering clean energy and protecting national security during a boom in artificial intelligence

President Joe Biden signed an executive order on Tuesday to provide federal support to address massive energy needs for fast-growing advanced artificial intelligence data centers, the White House said.

President Biden issued a new executive order Thursday aimed at speeding the construction of artificial intelligence data centers on federal sites.

The executive order calls on the federal departments of Defense and Energy to each identify at least three locations for private-sector data centers. It seeks to balance construction, consumer cost and environmental impact.

The executive action will leverage federally protected lands to develop data centers capable of supporting AI software, with a priority on incorporating clean energy sources.

President Joe Biden issued an executive order Tuesday that directs the departments of Energy and Defense to lease sites to the private sector for a build-out of “gigawatt-scale” data centers.