Days before the Biden administration is set to leave the White House, it issued Tuesday an executive order aimed at shoring up the nation’s AI infrastructure, including through the operation of data centers, in an effort to ensure that the growing technology will be built and operated in the U.S. Specifically, the order outlines requirements for federal agencies — including the departments of Defense and Energy — to identify sites that the government could lease to the private sector for the construction and operation of frontier AI data centers, as well as clean energy facilities to serve those centers. The order instructs those organizations to review competitive proposals to construct AI infrastructure on those sites. The order appears to be a direct response to AI companies, such as OpenAI and Microsoft, which have emphasized the importance of investment in data center infrastructure to meet AI’s massive data processing and training needs.

The Office of Personnel Management has a new top IT official: Melvin Brown II is now the agency’s chief information officer following Guy Cavallo’s retirement from federal service. Before his promotion, Brown was the deputy CIO at the agency and served in that role since January 2021. In a written statement, an OPM spokesperson said Brown “has been an integral leader in delivering many of OPM’s accomplishments in modernizing IT.” That includes the agency achieving an “A” score on its Federal Information Technology Acquisition Reform Act, or FITARA, scorecard, which tracks agency progress in multiple IT areas. Prior to joining OPM, Brown directed enterprise business management within the Small Business Administration’s Office of the CIO and was a senior adviser to the Department of Homeland Security’s Presidential Transition Office.

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