President Joe Biden has signed an ambitious executive order on artificial intelligence that seeks to ensure the infrastructure needed for advanced AI operations like data centers can be built quickly and at scale in the United States.

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 rapid growth and huge electricity needs spawned by the artificial intelligence revolution spurs a directive to lease federal sites owned by Defense and Energy departments for power supply centers.