The order directs the Energy Department to build a closed-loop AI experimentation platform that automates experiment design and accelerates simulations. Officials said the system could shrink discovery timelines from years to days.

The mission is presented as part of a broader competition with China, tied to federal standards, deregulation, and the consolidation of fragmented state-level AI rules.

Closed-Loop Platform for Federal Science

The order tasks the Energy Department with integrating 17 national laboratories, high-performance supercomputers, and vast federal datasets into a single research environment.

The platform is designed to generate scientific foundation models, robotic-lab workflows, and predictive simulations across biotechnology, fusion plasma dynamics, semiconductors, and critical materials.

Officials said the goal is to harness the country’s most powerful computing assets to accelerate breakthroughs across 20 priority domains to be identified within 60 days.

“One Cooperative System for Research”

The directive instructs laboratories to merge data resources, AI tooling, and quantum-class machines “into one cooperative system for research.”

The platform will provide high-performance computing, model-training infrastructure, and integrated datasets to demonstrate initial operating capability within nine months for at least one major scientific challenge.

The administration said the system aims to double national scientific productivity within a decade.

Industry Alignment and National Security Stakes

Private-sector partners described the mission as the most complex scientific instrument ever built using U.S. computing networks.

Priority domains include biotechnology, nuclear fusion and fission, quantum information science, space exploration, microelectronics, and other fields tied to national and economic security.

Energy officials noted that while private AI investment is rising sharply, federal datasets and lab infrastructure remain essential to advancing scientific discovery and engineering capabilities.

Centralization of AI Policy and Regulatory Tension

The initiative follows moves to rescind earlier AI-safety directives and curb state-level regulatory authority.

The order calls for a single federal standard to replace “a patchwork of 50 state regimes,” arguing that fragmented rules risk undermining innovation.

Analysts said wider access to national labs and unified AI systems could democratize the technology, while also raising persistent concerns over security, governance, and data protection.