The Trump administration said in a statement on Wednesday that the U.S. will spend $5 billion to tackle long-standing scientific problems across multiple fields using AI. The statement adds that agencies will use the funding to identify the root causes of chronic diseases, accelerate drug discovery and develop longer-lasting building materials, among other tasks.
Scientists will have access to the Department of Energy’s supercomputers, AI and specialized datasets, along with other components needed to run experiments using algorithms, said Michael Kratsios, chief technology adviser to President Donald Trump, in an interview with Reuters.
Fifteen federal agencies will be involved in the project, including the Departments of Health and Human Services, Energy, Transportation, Defense and Interior. “The White House is helping bring together all of the different agencies that work on different domains to make them part of this larger effort on AI for science,” Kratsios said.
READ: Alphabet faces investor scrutiny as Gemini delay tests AI spending (July 21, 2026)
A White House report authored by Kratsios mentions that the Trump administration also plans to overhaul how the U.S. government funds federal research by supporting more individual scientists and the use of AI, rather than universities. This would give the administration more control over how the funds are used.
“Federal support for science must be politically accountable,” the report said.
During his second term, Trump has sought to exert greater control over how federal research dollars are allocated. Federal courts have pushed back, with an appeals panel ruling in January that the Trump administration cannot cut National Institutes of Health grant funding provided to universities engaged in scientific and medical research.
READ: Nitin Agarwal’s research published at world’s top AI conference (July 22, 2026)
The court ruled that Trump’s policy violated NIH regulations and congressional funding language. Last year, the Trump administration undertook cuts that targeted federal spending at major universities, resulting in grants at numerous institutions being frozen or canceled.
Kratsios said the $5 billion research initiative is an opportunity to train AI models on that information and use those algorithms to answer scientific questions. Microsoft will donate $40 million in AI computing credits over three years to support the effort, according to a company statement.
Artificial intelligence models require data to identify patterns, generate predictions and automate decisions. The U.S. government has some of the largest data sets in the world, including records about chemicals, critical minerals and patient health.