OPINION:
On Aug. 2, 1939, President Franklin D. Roosevelt received a letter from Albert Einstein, warning of a transformative technology being developed by a formidable adversary — one that could alter the course of history. Roosevelt acted swiftly, establishing a government advisory committee on nuclear fuel, ultimately resulting in the Manhattan Project. This decisive action secured U.S. and allied leadership in nuclear technology, a force with the power to either devastate or unify the world.
For 85 years, we have harnessed nuclear energy for peaceful purposes and collaborated globally to prevent nuclear conflict. Today, we stand at a similar juncture as revolutionary advancements in automated systems and digital technologies such as artificial intelligence accelerate in global adoption. Once again, the world needs the United States to steward these transformative capabilities.
Since the development of the internet, data and automated systems have fueled global economic growth, national security, communication and life-sustaining services. We depend on information technologies integrated with physical systems to manage power, water, transportation, commerce and nearly every facet of modern life.
Rapid advances in AI and related computational tools will enable unparalleled medical research, engineering and automation breakthroughs, collaborating with scientists to address the world’s most complex problems.
Yet AI can also be a powerful instrument of war, igniting a new arms race as global competitors strive for superiority to deter or triumph in conflict. As Russian President Vladimir Putin said in 2017, “The one who becomes the leader in this sphere will be the ruler of the world.”
While the U.S. no longer holds the industrial manufacturing advantage that prevailed in World War II, we lead the world in digital innovation — for now. We must not lose this edge.
America maintains a different economic relationship with technology innovation than the European Union and China.
The United States is seen as the innovator, the EU as the regulator and China as the spoiler, often by stealing from the West. In AI, the U.S. significantly outperforms Europe across various metrics, including scientific citations, venture capital investment and commercial ventures. AI is also a crucial arena for economic and military rivalry between the U.S. and China.
As primary steward of the free world’s digital infrastructure, the United States holds considerable soft power. Conversely, China leverages AI to enforce state control through surveillance technologies. It promotes its techno-authoritarian model via 144 smart city projects in 64 countries, with 41 deemed “not free” or “partly free” by Freedom House.
Furthermore, China’s infrastructure solutions, such as Huawei’s systems with embedded backdoor and authoritarian features, contribute to global democratic erosion and influence international AI and data standards, challenging U.S. leadership in upholding democratic digital values.
The immense capabilities of AI are enabled by an extensive global network of data centers, interconnected by fiber and reliant on the same electricity we use every day.
Just as we maintain a robust defense industrial base to secure critical systems and supply chains, it is crucial to commit resources to sovereign digital infrastructure hosting North America’s computing capabilities. This is critical to guard against potential disruption, denial or exploitation by foreign adversaries such as China.
Equally essential is the need to rapidly develop power generation to support the demands of AI. We continue to innovate next-generation computing power, but generating more energy is our Achilles’ heel. Our nation’s energy supplies and power grids struggle to meet skyrocketing demand.
A recent Goldman Sachs report estimated that data centers will use 8% of U.S. power by 2030, compared with 3% in 2022. Other studies estimate that AI and data centers could drive the cost of energy up by 70% over 10 years.
We face a real risk of depleting available electricity in the next three years unless we accelerate the deployment of new energy generation. China is acutely aware of this and is building dozens of new nuclear reactors, natural gas plants and even coal plants to meet its growing demand. The U.S., however, is not.
The White House recently convened a task force to spearhead the development of AI data centers and the robust power infrastructure required to support advanced AI operations. The message is clear: Our nation urgently needs comprehensive regulatory relief to clear obstacles and accelerate the deployment of a reliable energy portfolio, including natural gas, geothermal, hydrogen and nuclear power. This level of reliable power is impossible with renewable sources alone because of the extensive storage needed to address intermittent sun and wind generation.
President-elect Donald Trump resonated on the campaign trail with his “all of the above” energy policy, stating: “Starting on day one, I will approve new drilling, new pipelines, new refineries, new power plants, new reactors, and we will slash the red tape. We will get the job done.”
We cannot afford to wait five to 10 years for permits and licenses for new energy technologies and transmission lines.
Expanding natural gas and geothermal drilling and deploying advanced nuclear reactors swiftly is imperative. To maximize efficiency and avoid regulatory delays, the White House should promote the collocation of large-scale power generation (a gigawatt or more) alongside hyper-scale data centers on federal installations, sharing priorities such as energy resilience, physical security, broadband access and cyber protections.
Excess power not used by the data centers can be supplied to the local installation or community. The AI capabilities generated by these data centers can support national security missions. Furthermore, placing both on military bases offers an accelerated development path with reduced regulatory hurdles.
In the AI age, we need the same level of leadership and urgency that secured our nuclear innovation in 1945. We cannot allow our adversaries to outpace us and seize control over global AI access. We must strive to remain the sovereign host of the free world’s digital infrastructure. Our national security and economic prosperity are on the line.
• Lucian Niemeyer is a former assistant secretary of defense and White House official. Erik Bethel is a former Trump World Bank official and senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
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