America’s AI Action Plan

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The America’s AI Action Plan is a strategic document released by the White House in July 2025, outlining the United States government’s roadmap to achieve global leadership in artificial intelligence (AI). The plan was developed following Executive Order 14179, “Removing Barriers to American Leadership in Artificial Intelligence,” signed by President Donald Trump in January 2025.

Background

The plan frames AI as critical to U.S. economic competitiveness, national security, and scientific advancement, emphasizing the need for American global technological dominance. It identifies AI as an enabler of a new industrial revolution, an information revolution, and a renaissance in intellectual and creative domains.

The document emphasizes the strategic importance of open-source and open-weight artificial intelligence models for fostering innovation, advancing research, and maintaining U.S. leadership in AI. The plan highlights that open-source models enable startups to experiment without dependence on closed-model providers, facilitate the adoption of AI by businesses and government agencies handling sensitive data, and support rigorous academic research requiring access to model weights and training data.

The Plan outlines actions to cultivate an environment conducive to open development while affirming that the decision to release models openly remains with developers. Key initiatives include improving access to large-scale compute resources for startups and researchers, partnering with technology companies to expand research access to private-sector computing and datasets, and advancing the National AI Research Resource to support academic and public sector use of AI. Additionally, the plan calls for stakeholder engagement to encourage the adoption of open models among small and medium-sized enterprises and commits to updating the National AI R&D Strategic Plan to guide federal investments in open and transparent AI development.

The Plan underscores the critical role of energy infrastructure and data centers in supporting U.S. ambitions for global leadership in artificial intelligence. The plan identifies the need for a substantial expansion of energy generation and modernization of the national power grid to meet the demands of large-scale AI computing, noting that America’s energy capacity has stagnated while global competitors have accelerated development. It calls for the rapid construction of data centers, semiconductor manufacturing facilities, and associated energy infrastructure, supported by streamlined permitting processes and the removal of regulatory barriers under federal environmental laws.

The plan emphasizes the importance of ensuring that this infrastructure is secure from foreign adversaries by building the domestic AI computing stack with American-made products and technology free from adversarial influence. Additionally, it outlines strategies to stabilize and optimize the existing power grid while promoting advanced energy sources, such as enhanced geothermal and nuclear technologies, to support future AI-driven industries. The Action Plan also prioritizes the development of high-security data centers for military and intelligence community use, ensuring resilience against nation-state threats while providing secure environments for processing sensitive data with advanced AI systems. Through these measures, the plan frames energy infrastructure and secure data center development as foundational to maintaining U.S. competitiveness and security in the AI era.

Plan’s Structure

The document is organized around three core pillars: accelerating innovation, building infrastructure, and advancing international diplomacy and security. The first pillar focuses on fostering rapid AI development by removing regulatory barriers, promoting private-sector-led innovation, supporting open-source and open-weight models, and advancing the adoption of AI across sectors such as healthcare, defense, and manufacturing. The second pillar emphasizes the need for extensive infrastructure expansion, including modernizing the national power grid, constructing data centers and semiconductor manufacturing facilities, and ensuring a secure and reliable energy supply to meet the computational demands of AI systems. The third pillar centers on international engagement, aiming to promote the export of American AI technologies and standards to allied nations while countering adversarial influence in global AI governance. It also highlights the importance of safeguarding advanced AI capabilities through export controls, protecting intellectual property, and evaluating emerging national security risks associated with frontier AI models. Together, these pillars reflect a comprehensive strategy to position the United States as a global leader in the AI era while prioritizing economic competitiveness, national security, and technological innovation.

Implementation

The Plan assigns responsibilities to key government bodies, involving federal policies coordinated across agencies, such as the Office of Science and Technology Policy, Department of Commerce, Department of Defense, Department of Energy, and National Science Foundation, among others. Their roles must ensure alignment across research, infrastructure, security, and workforce development efforts. It prioritizes public-private partnerships to leverage industry expertise and infrastructure while maintaining federal oversight on security and standards.

The implementation strategy also includes regulatory reforms to remove barriers to AI innovation and infrastructure buildout, the development of secure computing environments for sensitive AI workloads, and programs to monitor and assess the national security implications of frontier AI systems.

Additionally, the plan outlines continuous evaluation mechanisms, including the use of national security-related AI evaluations, regulatory sandboxes for testing, and interagency councils to oversee progress and adapt to technological advancements. By integrating these measures, the Action Plan aims to translate its pillars of innovation, infrastructure, and international security into practical steps that strengthen America’s competitive position in AI while ensuring responsible and secure development.