The Genesis Mission

AI goes on steroids

Dec 21, 2025

∙ Paid

source: AI generated image

On November 24, 2025, President Donald J. Trump issued an executive order establishing the Genesis Mission, a national initiative led by the Department of Energy (DOE) to harness artificial intelligence (AI) for accelerating transformative scientific discoveries and addressing pressing challenges in national security, energy dominance, medicine, materials science, and beyond. Some say that it is comparable in ambition to the Manhattan Project or Apollo program, the Mission directs the DOE to integrate the nation’s 17 national laboratories, world-class supercomputers, and vast federal scientific datasets into a secure, unified “American Science and Security Platform”—a closed-loop AI experimentation environment for training foundation models, creating AI agents to test hypotheses, automating research workflows, and powering robotic labs.

Readers can skip over the next section, which provides the full text of the Executive Order (EO) as the contents are summarized later in this post.

Executive Order: Launching the Genesis Mission

By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, it is hereby ordered:

Section 1. Purpose.

From the founding of our Republic, scientific discovery and technological innovation have driven American progress and prosperity. Today, America is in a race for global technology dominance in the development of artificial intelligence (AI), an important frontier of scientific discovery and economic growth. To that end, my Administration has taken a number of actions to win that race, including issuing multiple Executive Orders and implementing America’s AI Action Plan, which recognizes the need to invest in AI-enabled science to accelerate scientific advancement.
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 Genesis Mission is comparable in urgency and ambition to the Manhattan Project. It is a historic national effort led by the Department of Energy (DOE) to establish the American Science and Security Platform (Platform) — a unified infrastructure that integrates DOE’s high-performance computing (HPC) capabilities, vast scientific datasets, AI foundation models, and experimental facilities into a secure, integrated ecosystem. This Platform will enable AI to automate experiment design, accelerate simulations, and generate predictive models for everything from protein folding to fusion plasma dynamics, thereby revolutionizing the pace of scientific discovery across priority domains such as biotechnology, critical materials, nuclear fission and fusion energy, space exploration, quantum information science, and semiconductors and microelectronics.
The Platform will multiply the return on taxpayer investment by providing approved private-sector partners with secure access to federal HPC resources, datasets, and facilities through cooperative agreements, while ensuring robust protections for intellectual property, national security, and data privacy. Implementation of the Genesis Mission shall be subject to available appropriations and consistent with applicable law.

Section 2. Leadership and Coordination.

(a) The Secretary of Energy (Secretary) shall lead the implementation of the Genesis Mission and serve as the chair of the Genesis Mission Steering Committee (Steering Committee), which shall include representatives from DOE, the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, the Department of Defense, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and other agencies as determined by the Secretary.
(b) Within 30 days of the date of this order, the Secretary shall establish the Steering Committee to oversee the development and operation of the Platform.
(c) The Assistant to the President for Science and Technology (APST) shall provide general leadership of the Mission, including coordination of participating executive departments and agencies (agencies) through the National Science and Technology Council (NSTC) and the issuance of guidance to ensure that the Mission is aligned with national objectives.

Section 3. Operation of the American Science and Security Platform.

(a) The Secretary shall establish and operate the American Science and Security Platform (Platform) to serve as the infrastructure for the Mission with the purpose of providing, in an integrated manner and to the maximum extent practicable and consistent with law:
(i) secure access to DOE’s exascale and other HPC systems, including those at national laboratories, for training and deploying scientific foundation models and AI agents;
(ii) curated, de-identified federal scientific datasets from across agencies, formatted for AI training and analysis;
(iii) experimental tools and facilities, such as robotic labs and accelerators, integrated with AI-driven automation; and
(iv) secure collaboration environments for government, academic, and private-sector partners to co-develop AI applications for national challenges.
(b) Within 90 days of the date of this order, the Secretary shall issue guidance on access protocols for the Platform, including risk-based cybersecurity requirements, data-sharing agreements, and compliance with export controls and intellectual property protections.
(c) The Secretary shall prioritize the Platform’s application to at least one high-impact scientific domain by May 1, 2026, demonstrating accelerated discovery through AI integration.

Section 4. Identification of National Challenges.

(a) Within 60 days of the date of this order, the Secretary shall identify and submit to the APST a detailed list of at least 20 science and technology challenges of national importance that the Secretary assesses to have potential to be addressed through the Mission and that span priority domains consistent with National Science and Technology Memorandum 2 of September 23, 2025, including:
(i) advancing cures for diseases through AI-accelerated drug discovery and personalized medicine;
(ii) designing next-generation materials for clean energy and semiconductors;
(iii) modeling complex systems for climate resilience and fusion energy viability; and
(iv) enhancing national security through AI-enabled quantum and space technologies.
(b) The APST, in coordination with the NSTC, shall review and refine this list annually to align with evolving national priorities.

Section 5. Private-Sector Engagement and Funding Opportunities.

(a) The Secretary shall develop and issue funding opportunities or prize competitions, subject to available appropriations, to incentivize private-sector participation in the Mission, including the development of AI models compatible with the Platform.
(b) Within 120 days of the date of this order, the Secretary shall establish cooperative research and development agreements (CRADAs) with qualified private-sector entities to integrate commercial AI capabilities into the Platform, ensuring mutual benefits while safeguarding federal interests.

Section 6. General Provisions.

(a) Nothing in this order shall be construed to impair or otherwise affect:
(i) the authority granted by law to an executive department or agency, or the head thereof; or
(ii) the functions of the Director of the Office of Management and Budget relating to budgetary, administrative, or legislative proposals.
(b) This order shall be implemented consistent with applicable law and subject to the availability of appropriations.
(c) This order is not intended to, and does not, create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by any party against the United States, its departments, agencies, or entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or any other person.
DONALD J. TRUMP
THE WHITE HOUSE,
November 24, 2025.

Plain English Discussion

The mission is a national effort led by the Department of Energy to build an integrated AI platform (the “American Science and Security Platform”). This platform harnesses federal scientific datasets and supercomputers to train AI models, automate research, and achieve breakthroughs in critical areas like energy, national security, and advanced manufacturing.

The federal government says it is involved in the Genesis Mission because the project is explicitly viewed as a large-scale national strategic effort critical to US global leadership and national security.

The involvement is modeled after historical initiatives like the Manhattan Project and the Apollo Program, which required massive mobilization of federal resources

The Genesis Mission is positioned as a strategic response to intensifying global technological competition, framing AI as a critical new domain akin to a “cold war” in which the United States must secure decisive dominance. Its primary objective is to maintain American leadership in science and technology by winning the race for superior AI capabilities, while bolstering national security through applications that strengthen the nuclear deterrent, accelerate the development of defense-related materials, and advance AI technologies for broader security missions. Simultaneously, the initiative seeks to enhance economic competitiveness by doubling the productivity and impact of American science and engineering within a decade, driving breakthroughs in vital sectors such as advanced manufacturing, biotechnology, and semiconductors.

The federal government believes it possesses the immense scale of resources required to execute the Genesis Mission effectively, with the Department of Energy (DOE) controlling the nation’s most powerful supercomputers at its National Laboratories—critical for training the large-scale scientific foundation models at the heart of the initiative. Additionally, decades of federal investment have amassed the world’s largest collection of standardized, often classified or highly sensitive scientific datasets essential for advancing AI in high-impact areas such as nuclear energy and materials science. Complementing these assets, the DOE’s network of 17 National Laboratories offers an unparalleled concentration of world-class scientists, engineers, and specialized research facilities, serving as the primary operational foundation for the American Science and Security Platform.

The Genesis Mission demands a comprehensive “whole-of-government” approach to consolidate fragmented research efforts across federal agencies, with the EO designating the Department of Energy to lead the initiative and the Assistant to the President for Science and Technology to coordinate activities government-wide. To enable secure and effective collaboration, the federal government must establish unified standards for data access, cybersecurity, intellectual property protection, and partnership protocols, allowing vetted private-sector entities, academic institutions, and international allies to share critical data and computational resources safely.

The 20 priority science and technology challenges themselves have not yet been publicly released by the Department of Energy (DOE).

The Executive Order launching the Genesis Mission requires the Secretary of Energy to identify and submit a detailed list of at least 20 national S&T challenges to the Assistant to the President for Science and Technology within 60 days of the order (which was signed on November 24, 2025).

While the specific 20 challenges are pending, the Executive Order explicitly lists the six priority domains that these challenges must span. These areas represent the strategic focus of the Genesis Mission and where the government anticipates the greatest impact from AI-accelerated discovery.

The 20+ challenges will be drawn from, and must be consistent with, the following high-priority areas:

Nuclear Fission and Fusion Energy: Accelerating the development of next-generation nuclear energy sources, including fusion and advanced fission reactors, to achieve U.S. energy dominance.
Biotechnology: Advancing research in areas like genetic engineering, protein folding, and novel drug discovery, with implications for health and dual-use security.
Critical Materials: Discovering and developing new materials for everything from high-efficiency energy storage to advanced manufacturing and defense applications, reducing reliance on foreign supply chains.
Advanced Manufacturing: Utilizing AI to automate and optimize complex manufacturing workflows, design novel products, and accelerate the transition from lab discovery to industrial-scale production.
Quantum Information Science: Speeding up the development of quantum computing, sensing, and networking technologies.
Semiconductors and Microelectronics: Enhancing the design, simulation, and manufacturing processes for next-generation chips to secure domestic supply and maintain technological superiority.

The DOE will demonstrate an initial operating capability of the American Science and Security Platform for at least one of these identified challenges within 270 days of the Executive Order.

A look at the players

While it emphasizes a “whole-of-government” approach with standardized partnerships for vetted private entities, academia, and allies. These players are structured to leverage industry expertise, as evidenced by early partnerships with a broad array of companies, including Anthropic, NVIDIA, OpenAI, IBM, Microsoft, AMD, AWS, Google, and Oracle. The are alarms about potential oligarchic control or favoritism toward Big Tech, but the mission’s design prioritizes interoperability, avoids duplication, and aims to double American R&D productivity within a decade by augmenting human scientists with AI, rather than crowning specific corporate victors. In essence, it’s the government betting big on collective American innovation to lead the race, not rigging it for any one player.

The foundation of the Genesis Mission is rooted in the federal scientific ecosystem, specifically within the DOE National Laboratories, which act as the core operators of the American Science and Security Platform (ASSP). These 17 facilities, including Ames National Laboratory and Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, house the essential supercomputers, vast datasets, and expert scientific staff needed to drive the initiative. However, the mission is deliberately structured to integrate external expertise, making academia a crucial partner. Universities serve primarily as vital sources of research expertise, advanced datasets, and the future workforce. The Department of Energy and other agencies are tasked with integrating relevant research models and datasets from academic institutions into the ASSP, while simultaneously establishing a robust talent pipeline through competitive fellowships, internships, and apprenticeships to train the next generation of AI-enabled researchers. Furthermore, academic researchers are granted access to the platform and the DOE’s advanced scientific instruments through various established user facility partnerships.