Securing AI Infrastructure for U.S. Strategic Leadership

In collaboration with industry partners like OpenAI and NVIDIA, consumer advocacy groups, foundations, and the public sector, ASP conducts high-impact research and programming on the revolutionary potential of artificial intelligence to reshape American security and economic prosperity. They then use this research to influence legislative and regulatory policy concerning the development and diffusion of American AI and its supporting infrastructure. 

In January 2025, OpenAI announced the biggest megaproject ever embarked on in the United States: Stargate, a $500 billion commitment to expand AI data center capacity in the United States by 10 gigawatts before 2029. In combination with a $100 billion AI infrastructure announcement by Microsoft, America’s exponential data infrastructure expansion promises unprecedented potential for social and economic change — and poses enormous complexities for federal and state lawmakers, particularly in middle America. 

Legislators want to know: what are the most urgent policy reforms that need to occur on the federal level for America to efficiently deploy and defend supermassive private sector AI infrastructure investments? How can Washington efficiently accelerate domestic AI development while preserving U.S. national security? For this Capstone project, the team will conduct policy analysis and identify major legislative hurdles hindering the expansion of AI infrastructure projects in the United States. They will also identify national security risks that must be considered when designing new AI infrastructure policies, and exploring potential solutions to these risks.