President Donald Trump has signed an executive order launching the “Genesis Mission,” a federal initiative aimed at using artificial intelligence (AI) to drive scientific discovery and economic growth. The order directs the Department of Energy and national laboratories to create a digital platform that consolidates the nation’s scientific data.
The Genesis Mission seeks collaboration between government agencies, technology companies, and universities. According to White House officials, private sector and academic partners will be asked to apply their AI capabilities to address engineering, energy, and national security challenges. One focus area includes efforts to improve the country’s electric grid.
“The Genesis Mission will bring together our Nation’s research and development resources — combining the efforts of brilliant American scientists, including those at our national laboratories, with pioneering American businesses; world-renowned universities; and existing research infrastructure, data repositories, production plants, and national security sites — to achieve dramatic acceleration in AI development and utilization,” the executive order states.
Administration officials have compared this project to previous large-scale mobilizations of federal scientific resources such as the Apollo space missions. This comes despite reductions in federal funding for scientific research in recent years.
Trump has emphasized his reliance on technological innovation for economic progress. Last week he hosted Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who pledged $1 trillion—mainly from oil and gas revenues—to transform Saudi Arabia into an AI data hub.
Funding for the U.S. side of the initiative was included in a tax-break and spending bill passed in July.
The increased use of AI is expected to raise electricity demand due to growing numbers of data centers. These facilities accounted for about 1.5% of global electricity consumption last year, with projections suggesting this could more than double by 2030 according to International Energy Agency estimates. While this trend raises concerns about higher utility rates and environmental impacts from greater fossil fuel use, administration officials argue that as technology advances it will help lower costs per unit of electricity by increasing transmission line capacity.
