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Dive brief:
- The US House of Representatives Thursday passed a bipartisan bill to modernize the National Environmental Policy Law and expedited federal approval of US infrastructure projects, according to a press release from Representative Jared Golden (D-Maine)one of the co-sponsors of the bill.
- The Standardization of Permitting and Acceleration of Economic Development (SPEED) Act is intended to limit the number of federal actions that can trigger NEPA project reviews in an attempt to speed up the permitting process. according to the summary of the bill. The SPEED Law was approved in the Chamber a 221-196 votes.
- “The SPEED Act will help launch America into a future where we can innovate and implement effectively to revitalize our infrastructure, meet growing energy demands, lead the world in the AI race, and work in harmony with our natural environment.” Rep. Bruce Westerman (R-Ark.) he said in a press release introducing the bill in July
Diving knowledge:
The advancement of the permitting reform bill comes as tech giants join the Trump administration in a massive push to expand the nation’s AI capabilities and infrastructure, a demand that hinges on business success with AI projects.
President Donald Trump launched the Genesis Mission in November, a coordinated national effort to build an integrated AI platform called American Science and Security Platform. The US Department of Energy announced this Thursday collaboration agreements with 24 technology companies, incl Google, AWS, Microsoft, OpenAI and Nvidia to advance the Mission Genesis.
The Genesis mission aims to converge AI and high-performance computing, enabling technology such as AI agents to evaluate experimental results and automate workflows. David Appel, vice president of global government, homeland security and defense at AWS, he wrote in a blog post. AWS announced in November an investment of up to $50 billion in AI infrastructure for government agencies.
“What we’re building provides exactly those capabilities to meet the mission’s aggressive 270-day schedule and demonstrates today’s operational capability.” appeal he wrote
As tech companies aggressively invest in AI infrastructure, the SPEED Act’s next steps may not come too soon when it heads to the Senate for approval. CIO concerns about compute capacity amid rising cloud costs they are partly fueling the rush to build infrastructure.
Microsoft spent 11.1 billion dollars in long-term assets such as expanding data center sites at the end of the quarter September 30 But the company reported that they were struggling with capacity shortages while facing increasing demand for AI workloads, a problem was also felt among other tech companies. OpenAI entered one $38 billion partnership with AWS to extend their access to cloud infrastructure to support AI workloads last month.
Data centers will require 6.7 trillion dollars investment value to keep up with the demand for computing power 2030, according to management consultancy McKinsey & Company. Data centers are expected to be equipped to process AI workloads 5.2 trillion dollars in capital expenditures, McKinsey said.
Hyperscalers try to project AI needs based on uncertain factors, such as how companies translate AI into business value, according to McKinsey. Companies are already struggling demonstrate the ROI of their AI investments.
“If companies don’t create significant value from AI, demand for computing power could fall short of expectations,” he said. McKinsey the report said. “Conversely, transformative AI applications could fuel even greater demand than current projections suggest.”
