Trump signs executive order launching AI initiative being compared to the Manhattan Project

NBC News reports that President Trump signed an executive order on a Monday afternoon creating the "Genesis Mission," a federal push to speed up American AI research, development and scientific use. The order sets out steps to expand computing resources, widen access to large federal datasets and move toward practical applications, especially in science. The order compares the effort to the Manhattan Project in terms of urgency and ambition. Michael Kratsios, who directs the Office of Science and Technology Policy, will lead it.

Under the order, Energy Secretary Chris Wright must establish an "American Science and Security Platform" gathering the infrastructure needed, chiefly computing power and datasets for training AI models. The platform is meant to draw on the world's largest collection of federal scientific data to train scientific foundation models and build AI agents that test hypotheses and automate research. NBC notes that federal data is valuable but often scattered, and the order makes Kratsios responsible for bringing suitable agency data and infrastructure into the mission.

The order also opens the way to more public-private partnerships. Within 90 days the energy secretary must identify available systems and data, including resources offered by industry partners. Within 270 days, AI is to be applied to national science and technology challenges such as advanced manufacturing, robotics, biotechnology and nuclear fission and fusion.

The article adds background. The initiative builds on the National Artificial Intelligence Research Resource, created in 2020, and follows the July AI Action Plan and recent Energy Department announcements involving AMD, HPE and Nvidia at Oak Ridge. Keegan McBride called the announcement a strong signal to the world, and Lynne Parker stressed the importance of long-term public investment in AI research.