(a) By February 28, 2025, the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of Energy shall, if possible, each identify a minimum of 3 sites on Federal land managed by their respective agencies that may be suitable for the agencies to lease to non-Federal entities for the construction and operation of a frontier AI data center, as well as for the construction and operation of clean energy facilities to serve the data center, by the end of 2027. In identifying these sites, each Secretary shall, as feasible and appropriate, seek to prioritize sites that possess the following characteristics, as consistent with the objective of fully permitting and approving work to construct a frontier AI data center at each site by the end of 2025:
(i) inclusion of sufficient terrain with appropriate land gradients, soil durability, and other topographical characteristics for frontier AI data centers;
(ii) minimized adverse effects from AI infrastructure development or operation on local communities' health, wellbeing, and resource access; natural or cultural resources; threatened or endangered species; and harbors or river improvements not associated with hydropower generation resources;
(iii) proximity to any communities seeking to host AI infrastructure, including for reasons related to local workers' access to jobs involved in designing, building, maintaining, and operating data centers;
(iv) ready access and proximity to high-voltage transmission infrastructure that minimizes the scale of, cost of, and timeline to develop any transmission upgrades or development needed to interconnect AI infrastructure, in consideration of access and proximity to:
(A) high-capacity transmission infrastructure with unused capacity, as identified by collection activities described in section 6 of this order;
(B) any planned generation facilities that can enable delivery of electricity to an AI data center on the site managed by each Secretary's respective agency, that possess an executed interconnection agreement with a transmission provider, that do not possess an executed power purchase agreement, and for which construction has not yet begun;
(C) any lands that the Secretary of the Interior identifies pursuant to subsection (c) of this section; and
(D) any power generation facilities with high clean repowering potential;
(v) location within geographic areas that are not at risk of persistently failing to attain National Ambient Air Quality Standards, and where the total cancer risk from air pollution is at or below the national average according to the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA's) 2020 AirToxScreen;
(vi) lack of proximity to waters of the United States for purposes of permitting requirements;
(vii) lack of extensive restrictions on land uses associated with constructing and operating AI infrastructure or on access to necessary rights-of-way for such activities;
(viii) ready access to high-capacity telecommunications networks;
(ix) suitability for the development of access roads or other temporary infrastructure necessary for the construction of AI infrastructure; and
(x) absence of other characteristics that would, if the site was used or repurposed for AI infrastructure, compromise a competing national security concern as determined by the relevant Secretary in consultation with the Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs.
(b) By March 15, 2025, the Secretary of the Interior, acting through the Director of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), in consultation with the Secretary of Defense, the Secretary of Energy, and the Chair of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, shall identify sites managed by BLM that the Secretary of the Interior, acting through the Director of BLM, deems may be suitable for granting or issuing rights of way to private-sector entities to construct and operate additional clean energy facilities that are being or may be built as components of frontier AI infrastructure developed pursuant to this section. In performing this work, the Secretary of the Interior, in consultation with the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of Energy, shall take steps to ensure where feasible and appropriate that any such sites identified under this subsection include sufficient acreage for developing clean generation resources that can deliver sufficient electricity to each site identified under subsection (a) of this section for matching the capacity needs of frontier AI data centers on the latter sites. The sites identified under this subsection shall include any land managed by the Department of the Interior that is within a region designated by the Secretary of the Interior under subsection (c) of this section, or a region preliminarily identified as a candidate for such designation. In determining the suitability of sites, the Secretary of the Interior, acting through the Director of BLM, shall prioritize identification of sites that:
(i) contain completed, permitted, or planned clean generation projects that can enable delivery of electricity as described in this subsection and possess an executed interconnection agreement with a transmission provider;
(ii) have been allocated as available for solar applications in the Final Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement and Proposed Resource Management Plan Amendments for Utility-Scale Solar Energy Development , published by BLM, or that have otherwise been allocated as available for clean-energy applications in a BLM resource management plan;
(iii) have reasonable access to and are located nearby existing high-voltage transmission lines that have at least one gigawatt of additional capacity available, or for which such capacity can be reasonably developed through reconductoring, grid-enhancing technologies, or transmission upgrades;
(iv) possess the characteristics described in subsections (a)(i)-(x) of this section, in a manner that is consistent with the objective of fully permitting and approving work to construct utility-scale power facilities on a timeline that allows for the operation of those facilities by the end of 2027 or as soon as feasible thereafter; and
(v) possess other characteristics conducive to enabling new clean power development at such sites to contribute to lower regional electricity prices or to bring other community benefits.
(c) By March 15, 2025, the Secretary of the Interior, acting through the Director of BLM and in consultation with the Secretary of Energy, shall, if possible, designate at least five regions composed of lands or subsurface areas managed by the Department of the Interior as Priority Geothermal Zones (PGZs). The Secretary of the Interior shall designate those regions based on their potential for geothermal power generation resources, including hydrothermal and next-generation geothermal power and thermal storage; diversity of geological characteristics; and possession of the characteristics described in subsections (a)(i)-(x) and (b)(i)-(v) of this section.
(d) The Secretary of Defense, the Secretary of Energy, and the Secretary of the Interior shall each make a legal determination as to whether each site identified pursuant to subsections (a) and (b) of this section is available for lease or for the issuance of a right of way, as appropriate, pursuant to the authority of the Secretary that made the identification, and as to whether the Secretary has the legal authority to lease or grant a right of way over or upon each site identified for the construction of frontier AI infrastructure. For purposes of this order, a site shall be considered “cleared” under this subsection if the relevant Secretary has determined that the site is available for lease and the Secretary concerned has the authority to lease it.
(e) By March 31, 2025, the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of Energy, in coordination with the heads of any other agencies that either Secretary deems appropriate, shall coordinate to design, launch, and administer competitive public solicitations of proposals from non-Federal entities to lease Federal land to construct frontier AI infrastructure, including frontier AI data centers, on sites identified under subsection (a) of this section and cleared under subsection (d) of this section, if any. When issuing the solicitations, the Secretaries shall announce the sites identified under subsection (a) of this section and cleared under subsection (d) of this section, if any, and additional relevant information including the sites' geographic coordinates, technical characteristics, proximity to sites identified consistent with subsection (b) of this section and cleared under subsection (d) of this section, if any, and other relevant information. The solicitations shall, to the extent consistent with applicable law and to the extent the Secretaries agree that such requirements promote national defense, national security, or the public interest, as appropriate, require applicants to identify particular sites on which they propose to construct and operate frontier AI infrastructure; submit a detailed plan specifying proposed timelines, financing methods, and technical construction plans associated with such construction work, including a contingency plan for decommissioning infrastructure on Federal sites; submit a plan that describes proposed frontier AI training work to occur at the site once operational; submit a plan for detailing the extent of the use of high labor and construction standards as described in subsection (g)(viii) of this section; and submit a plan with proposed lab-security measures, including personnel and material access requirements, that could be associated with the operation of frontier AI infrastructure. These requirements should be designed to ensure adequate collection of information from applicants regarding the criteria in subsections (g)(i)-(xvi) of this section. The solicitations shall close within 30 days of their issuance.
(f) By March 31, 2025, the Secretary of the Interior, in consultation with the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of Energy, shall publicize the sites identified under subsection (b) of this section and cleared under subsection (d) of this section, if any, and additional relevant information including the sites' geographic coordinates, technical characteristics, proximity to sites identified consistent with subsection (a) of this section and cleared under subsection (d) of this section, if any, and other relevant information.
(g) By June 30, 2025, the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of Energy shall announce any winning proposals identified through solicitations described in subsection (e) of this section. In selecting any winning proposals, the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of Energy shall, in consultation with each other, assign winners the opportunity to apply for any Federal permits needed to build and operate frontier AI infrastructure pursuant to the frameworks described in subsection (h) of this section on any sites included in the solicitations issued under subsection (e) of this section, as the Secretaries deem appropriate. The Secretaries shall consult with the Attorney General on the implications of selections on the competition and market-structure characteristics of the broader AI ecosystem. The Chair of the Federal Trade Commission is encouraged to participate in these consultations. The Secretaries shall, to the extent consistent with applicable law and to the extent that the Secretaries assess that the requirement promotes national defense, national security, or the public interest, as appropriate, select at least one proposal developed and submitted jointly by a consortium of two or more small- or medium-sized organizations—as determined by those organizations' market capitalization, revenues, or similar characteristics—provided that the Secretaries receive at least one such proposal that meets the appropriate qualifications. The Secretaries shall provide technical assistance, as appropriate, to small- or medium-sized organizations seeking to submit proposals. The criteria for selecting winning proposals shall include, at a minimum, consideration of the following characteristics of the applicants and any identified partner organizations, to the extent consistent with applicable law and to the extent that the Secretaries agree that the listed characteristics promote national defense, national security, or the public interest, as appropriate:
(i) proposed financing mechanisms and sources of funds secured or likely to be secured for work to be performed at the site;
(ii) plans for ensuring high-quality AI training operations to be executed at the site by the applicant or third-party partners;
(iii) plans for maximizing energy, water, and other resource efficiency, including waste-heat utilization in constructing and operating the AI data center at the site, the strength of the proposed energy master plan for the site, and the quality of analysis of potential strains on local communities;
(iv) safety and security measures, including cybersecurity measures, proposed to be implemented at the site, and capabilities for such implementation;
(v) capabilities and acumen of applicable AI scientists, engineers, and other workforce essential to the operation of AI infrastructure;
(vi) plans for commercializing or otherwise deploying or advancing deployment of appropriate intellectual property, including AI model weights, developed at the site, as well as plans for commercializing or otherwise deploying or advancing deployment of innovations related to power generation and transmission infrastructure developed in the course of building or operating AI infrastructure;
(vii) plans to help ensure that the construction and operation of AI infrastructure does not increase electricity costs to other ratepayers or water costs to consumers, including, as appropriate, through appropriate proposed or recommended future engagement with any applicable regulatory authorities and State, Tribal, or local governments;
(viii) plans to use high labor standards that help ensure continuous and high-quality work performed on the site, such as paying prevailing wages; hiring registered apprentices; promoting positive labor-management relations through a project labor agreement; and otherwise adopting high job quality and labor standards for the construction and operations workforce as set forth in Executive Order 14126 of September 6, 2024 (Investing in America and Investing in American Workers), and a plan to address labor-related risks associated with the development and use of AI;
(ix) design features and operational controls and plans that mitigate potential environmental effects and implement strong community health, public safety, and environmental protection measures;
(x) other benefits to the community and electric grid infrastructure surrounding the site;
(xi) experience completing comparable construction projects;
(xii) experience in compliance with Federal, State, and local permits and environmental reviews relevant to construction and operation of AI infrastructure or, in the alternative, other evidence of an ability to obtain and comply with such permits or reviews in an efficient manner;
(xiii) the presence of organizational and management structures to help ensure sound governance of work performed at the site;
(xiv) the effect of the selection of an applicant on the emergence of an interoperable, competitive AI ecosystem;
(xv) whether an applicant has already been assigned an opportunity, or is being assigned another opportunity, to build a frontier AI data center on a Federal site through the solicitation process described in this section; and
(xvi) other considerations of national defense, national security, or the public interest, including economic security, as the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of Energy deem appropriate.
(h) By June 30, 2025, the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of Energy, in consultation with the Secretary of the Interior, shall each develop a framework through which any winning applicants selected under subsection (g) of this section may apply to lease sites respectively identified under subsection (a) of this section, and cleared under subsection (d) of this section, to construct and operate AI infrastructure, and by which the applicants may own the AI infrastructure facilities on those sites, subject to the conditions described in subsections (i)-(x) of this subsection. To the extent that the Secretaries assess that it is consistent with national defense, national security, or the public interest, as appropriate, these frameworks shall allow for winning applicants to cooperate with other appropriate private-sector entities on construction and operation activities, including through contracting and subcontracting relationships, and the frameworks shall not require that parties proposing to own AI infrastructure be identical to those proposing to operate the infrastructure or perform work at the sites on which the infrastructure is located. Actions taken by Federal entities pursuant to the frameworks shall conform to any applicable requirements of Appendix B of Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Circular A- 11 and any other appropriate budget-scoring practices; applicable in-kind consideration shall be taken into account in calculating the cost to lessees of any such leases. As part of the foregoing work, the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of Energy shall, to the extent consistent with their respective authorities and with national defense, national security, or the public interest, as appropriate, require lease or contract terms that accomplish the following:
(i) establish a target of the applicant's beginning construction of a frontier AI data center by January 1, 2026, and commencing full-capacity operation of the AI infrastructure by December 31, 2027, subject to fulfillment of relevant statutory and regulatory requirements, and in a manner consistent with opportunities to operate the infrastructure at or below full capacity at an earlier date;
(ii) require that, concurrent with operating a frontier AI data center on a Federal site, non-Federal parties constructing, owning, or operating AI infrastructure have procured sufficient new clean power generation resources with capacity value to meet the frontier AI data center's planned electricity needs, including by providing power that matches the data center's timing of electricity use on an hourly basis and is deliverable to the data center;
(iii) clarify that non-Federal parties bear all responsibility for paying any costs that parties to the frameworks described in subsection (h) of this section, as well as transmission providers or transmission organizations or other entities not party to the contract, incur from work pursuant to it, including costs of work performed by agencies to complete necessary environmental reviews, any costs related to the procurement of clean power generation resources and capacity in accordance with subsection (g)(ii) of this section, any costs of decommissioning AI infrastructure on Federal sites, any costs of developing transmission infrastructure needed to serve a frontier AI data center on a Federal site, and the fair market value of leasing and using applicable Federal lands;
(iv) require adherence to technical standards and guidelines for cyber, supply-chain, and physical security for protecting and controlling any facilities, equipment, devices, systems, data, and other property, including AI model weights, that are developed, acquired, modified, used, or stored at the site or in the course of work performed on the site. The Secretary of Commerce, acting through the Director of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the Director of the AI Safety Institute (AISI) at NIST, in consultation with the Secretary of Defense, the Secretary of Energy, and the Director of National Intelligence, shall identify available standards and guidelines to which adherence shall be required under this subsection. The identified standards should reflect and incorporate guidelines and best practices developed by the Secretary of Commerce, acting through the Director of NIST, pursuant to Executive Order 14028 of May 12, 2021 (Enhancing United States Cybersecurity), and Executive Order 14110 of November 1, 2023 (Safe, Secure, and Trustworthy Development and Use of Artificial Intelligence). The Secretary of Commerce, acting through the Director of AISI at NIST, shall support the ongoing improvement of the framework described in this subsection by developing security guidelines for frontier AI training and operation and, as part of this work, shall comprehensively evaluate the security implications of publicly available AI models that the Secretary of Commerce, acting through the Director of AISI at NIST, deems globally significant;
(v) require that non-Federal parties owning or operating frontier AI data centers sign a memorandum of understanding with the Secretary of Commerce, acting through the Director of AISI at NIST, to facilitate collaborative research and evaluations on AI models developed, acquired, modified, run, or stored at the site or in the course of work performed on the site, for the purpose of assessing the national-security or other significant risks of those models;
(vi) require non-Federal parties to report information about investments or financial capital from any person used or involved in the development (including construction), ownership, or operation of AI infrastructure on the site and in the development, operation, or use of AI models operating in such AI infrastructure, as appropriate to evaluate risks to national security; and require non-Federal parties to limit the involvement in any such activities of, or the use or involvement in any such activities of investments or financial capital from, any person whom the Secretaries of Defense or Energy deem appropriate on national security grounds;
(vii) require non-Federal parties owning or operating AI data centers on Federal sites to take appropriate steps to advance the objective of harnessing AI, with appropriate safeguards, for purposes of national security, military preparedness, and intelligence operations, including with respect to the objectives and work outlined in NSM-25. Such steps shall, as consistent with applicable legal authorities, include collaborating with the Federal Government on regularly recurring assessments of the national-security implications of AI models developed on Federal sites, as appropriate. In addition, as appropriate and consistent with any relevant Federal procurement laws and regulations, the non-Federal parties shall be required to commit to providing access to such models, and critical resources derivative of such models, to the Federal Government for national-security applications at terms at least no less favorable than current market rates, consistent with NSM-25 and the associated Framework to Advance AI Governance and Risk Management in National Security. To the extent feasible, AI models and resources derived from them shall be developed and provided to the Federal Government in a manner that prevents vendor lock-in and supports interoperability, including as consistent with the measures in section 5 of OMB Memorandum M-24-18;
(viii) require that non-Federal parties owning or operating frontier AI data centers on Federal sites develop plans to make available computational resources that are not dedicated to supporting frontier AI training, or otherwise allocated under another provision, for commercial use by startups and small firms on nondiscriminatory terms and in a manner that minimizes barriers to interoperability, entry, or exit for users;
(ix) require non-Federal parties owning or operating AI infrastructure on Federal sites to explore the availability of clean energy resources—such as geothermal power generation resources and thermal storage, long-duration storage paired with clean energy, and carbon capture and sequestration as described in section 3(e) of this order, as well as beneficial uses of waste heat—at any appropriate sites that those parties lease for purposes of constructing frontier AI data centers on Federal sites or procuring power generation capacity to serve these data centers; and
(x) require AI developers owning and operating frontier AI data centers on Federal sites either to procure, for use in the development of their data centers, an appropriate share (as measured by monetary value) of leading-edge logic semiconductors fabricated in the United States to the maximum extent practicable; or to develop and implement a plan, subject to the respective approval of the Secretary of Defense or the Secretary of Energy, to qualify leading-edge logic semiconductors fabricated in the United States for use in the developer's data centers as soon as practicable. The Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of Energy shall develop any such requirements—including any determinations about amounts of leading-edge logic semiconductors that may be considered “appropriate”—in consultation with the Secretary of Commerce.
(i) Within 1 year of the date of this order and consistent with applicable law, the Secretary of Defense, in consultation with the Secretary of Commerce, the Secretary of Energy, the Secretary of Homeland Security, the Director of National Intelligence, and the Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs, shall issue regulations that prescribe heightened safeguards to protect computing hardware acquired, developed, stored, or used on any sites on which frontier AI infrastructure is located and that are managed by the Department of Defense, as needed to implement or build upon the objectives of, or the requirements established pursuant to, subsection 4(g)(iv). The regulations shall include requirements to conform with appropriate high-impact level standards identified through the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program, and they shall further provide for appropriate penalties consistent with applicable authorities. No less than annually the Secretary of Defense, in consultation with the aforementioned individuals, shall review the need for updates to the regulations, and promulgate any necessary revisions. The Secretary of Energy shall impose substantively the same requirements with respect to frontier AI infrastructure on sites managed by the Department of Energy, to the extent authorized by law.
(j) To enable the use—for advancing geothermal power development, including the development of thermal storage—of Federal lands already subject to leases:
(i) Within 180 days of the date of this order, the Secretary of the Interior shall establish a program with personnel dedicated to providing technical assistance for, streamlining, and otherwise advancing direct-use leasing of geothermal projects on BLM lands, including as consistent with the policies set forth in 43 C.F.R. subpart 3205, and leases of geothermal projects on lands subject to mining claims or under an oil and gas lease.
(ii) When issuing leases and related authorizations for geothermal projects, the Secretary of the Interior shall consider the extent to which the requirements of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), 42 U.S.C. 4321 et seq ., the Endangered Species Act, 16 U.S.C. 1531 et seq ., and other appropriate statutes have been satisfied by prior analyses of the lease area.
(k) In performing the work described in section 4 of this order, including as related to the selection and management of sites, the head of each respective Federal agency shall:
(i) consult, as appropriate and consistent with applicable law, Executive Order 13175 of November 6, 2000 (Consultation and Coordination with Indian Tribal Governments), and the Presidential Memorandum of November 30, 2022 (Uniform Standards for Tribal Consultation), with Tribal Nations for which such work may have implications or who otherwise request such consultation;
(ii) seek input from, as appropriate and consistent with applicable law and Administration policies, with State and local governments and other stakeholders and communities for which such work may have implications; and
(iii) consider taking actions that present the greatest opportunities to support the goals described in Safely and Responsibly Expanding U.S. Nuclear Energy: Deployment Targets and A Framework for Action (November 2024).