Executive Order Establishes “Genesis Mission” to Accelerate AI-Driven Scientific Discovery

While the tech industry prepares for an Executive Order (EO) seeking to limit state regulation of AI, President Trump instead issued an EO titled “Launching the Genesis Mission” on November 24, 2025. The Genesis Mission (the “Mission”) is a national initiative aimed at transforming the pace and scale of scientific discovery through AI. The EO describes the Mission as comparable in urgency and ambition to the Manhattan Project, positioning it as a cornerstone of the administration’s strategy for U.S. technological leadership and national security. Under the EO, the Department of Energy (DOE) will take a central leadership role in developing an integrated AI platform that brings together federal computing, data, and research resources to speed AI-enabled scientific innovation.

Key Provisions

1. Establishes the Genesis Mission

The EO designates the Secretary of Energy as responsible for implementing the Mission within DOE. The Assistant to the President for Science and Technology (APST), currently Arati Prabhakar, will provide overall leadership, coordinating interagency participation through the National Science and Technology Council (NSTC).

2. Creation and Operation of the American Science and Security Platform

The Secretary of Energy is directed to establish and operate the American Science and Security Platform (the “Platform”), which will serve as the infrastructure backbone of the Mission. The Platform will provide:

• High-performance computing infrastructure, including DOE national laboratory supercomputers and secure cloud-based AI computing environments;
• AI modeling frameworks and AI agents to explore design spaces, evaluate experimental outcomes, and automate research workflows;
• Computational tools, including AI-enabled predictive and simulation models and design optimization tools;
• Domain-specific foundation models across scientific disciplines;
• Secure access to federal, proprietary, and open scientific datasets plus synthetic data generated by DOE computing resources; and
• Experimental and production tools for autonomous and AI-augmented experimentation and manufacturing in high-impact domains.

The Platform must meet high security requirements, including classification, supply chain security, and federal cybersecurity standards.

Implementation Timeline for the American Science and Security Platform

• Within 90 days, DOE must identify available federal computing, storage, networking resources, and partnerships to support the computational foundation of the Mission.
• Within 120 days, DOE must identify initial data and model assets for use in the Mission and develop a plan for incorporating datasets from various sources.
• Within 240 days, DOE must review capabilities across the DOE national laboratories and other federal research facilities for robotic laboratories and AI-directed experimentation facilities.
• Within 270 days, DOE must seek to demonstrate initial operating capability of the Platform for at least one of the national science and technology challenges described below.

3. Identification of National Science and Technology Challenges

Within 60 days, DOE must submit to the APST a list of at least 20 science and technology challenges of national importance that have the potential to be addressed through the Mission and that span priority domains, including:

• Advanced manufacturing;
• Biotechnology;
• Critical materials;
• Nuclear fission and fusion;
• Quantum information science; and
• Semiconductors and microelectronics.

The APST must review the list within 30 days of DOE’s submission and coordinate with other agencies to produce an expanded list to serve as the initial roadmap for the Mission. Agencies will use the Platform to advance research and development aligned with the challenges identified in the list. DOE must update the list annually to reflect progress and emerging needs.

4. Interagency Coordination and External Engagement

The EO, through the NSTC and in coordination with the Federal Chief Data Officer Council and Chief AI Officer Council, directs the APST to:

• Assist agencies in aligning their AI initiatives to avoid duplicated efforts and promote interoperability;
• Identify data sources to support the Mission;
• Develop a process and plan for agencies to contribute data and infrastructure to the Mission and encourage agencies to implement appropriate risk-based security measures;
• Organize prize competitions to foster private-sector participation;
• Coordinate with federal agencies to establish competitive fellowship, internship, and apprenticeship programs focused on applying AI to the Mission’s national challenges; and
• Identify opportunities for international scientific collaboration to support activities under the Mission.

The EO directs the Secretary of Energy, in coordination with the APST and the Special Advisor for AI and Crypto, to establish mechanisms for agency collaboration with external partners.[1] DOE will:

• Develop standardized cooperative research, data-use, and model-sharing agreements;
• Establish clear policies on ownership, licensing, trade secrets, and commercialization of intellectual property developed by the Mission;
• Implement uniform data-access and cybersecurity standards for non-federal collaborators that will access data, models, and infrastructure, ensuring compliance with classification, privacy, and export-control laws; and
• Enforce rigorous vetting and authorization procedures for collaborators accessing Mission resources.

5. Evaluation and Reporting

DOE must deliver an annual report to the President describing:

• Platform status and capabilities;
• Integration progress across participating research partners;
• Student and researcher participation;
• Research outcomes;
• Outcomes of public-private partnerships, including commercialization activities; and
• Recommendations for further support or authorities needed.

Implications of the Mission

The Mission consolidates years of fragmented federal AI initiatives into a single national platform, potentially reshaping how AI models are trained and deployed for scientific and security purposes. It signals a significant expansion of DOE’s leadership role in AI research and supercomputing. By tying AI directly to priority domains such as semiconductors, quantum, fusion, and biotechnology, the Mission could channel significant federal investment into dual-use technologies with both economic and defense applications. The EO opens new pathways for private-sector participation in federally backed AI research while emphasizing stringent cybersecurity, classification, and IP controls.

Next Steps

Clients in the AI, semiconductor, quantum, energy, and biotechnology sectors should monitor DOE implementation closely, as forthcoming guidance will shape eligibility for collaboration, access to data and compute, and compliance expectations.

We recommend that organizations begin to:

• Track DOE’s development of standardized partnership frameworks and cooperative research agreements;
• Assess whether their computing resources and scientific datasets could contribute to Mission objectives and prepare for potential partnership discussions; and
• Track funding opportunities and prize competitions tied to the Mission. 

[1] Initial collaborators are listed at https://www.energy.gov/genesis.