Hanford Nuclear Reservation with Northwest Energy's nuclear reactor letting off steam in the background. (Photo by Tobin, via Flickr, Creative Commons)

President Joe Biden signed an executive order on Tuesday to provide federal support to address massive energy needs for fast-growing advanced artificial intelligence data centers, the White House said.

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.

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

President Joe Biden on Tuesday signed an ambitious executive order on artificial intelligence that seeks to ensure the infrastructure needed for advanced AI operations, such as large-scale data centers and new clean power facilities,

Under the new rules, the departments of Defense and Energy will each identify at least three sites where the private sector can build AI data centers.

Developers will be required to use clean power sources to fully meet the sky-high energy demands of several new data centers.