PCA - Portland Cement Association

03/16/2026 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 03/16/2026 13:10

Building the Foundation for America's AI Leadership

Opinion

Building the Foundation for America's AI Leadership

Mar 16, 2026

You've heard it before: You can't put the cart before the horse. The same goes for AI and concrete-made with cement. The U.S. can only be the global leader in AI with resilient concrete data centers to house and protect AI technology. It's that simple.

President Trump knows this, and ACA greatly appreciates that he mentioned the need for "plenty of cement and concrete" as he announced the administration's "Winning the Race, America's AI Action Plan" at the Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium in Washington earlier this week.

Concrete Is the optimal material for data centers as it is fire resistant, offers thermal stability, provides unrivaled physical security, and has long-term structural integrity.

Its essentialness in nationwide efforts is often overlooked, mainly because it is consistently reliable and issue-free - constituting roads, bridges, buildings, dams and other infrastructure Americans use and depend on every single day.

The objectives of the "Winning the Race, America's AI Action Plan." include:

  • Emphasizing AI's role in national security and global competitiveness
  • Prioritizing permitting reform and public-private partnerships
  • Outlining training and workforce adaptation strategies for the age of digital labor
  • Addressing massive power demand growth for data centers

President Trump also signed a package of executive actions aimed at boosting energy supply to power the U.S. expansion of AI. Actions under consideration include:

    • Streamlining permitting by creating a nationwide Clean Water Act permit for data centers, which would replace the need for companies to seek permits on a state-by-state basis.
    • Building and connecting new power generation to the grid by allowing for the prioritization for grid connections of "shovel-ready" power-generating projects; and
    • The use of federal lands, including those managed by the Departments of Defense and Interior, for rapid deployment of AI-supporting assets and improving siting of data centers

We appreciate that the President recognizes that none of these AI goals happens without the proper infrastructure, built with cement and concrete, and America's cement manufacturers look forward to providing the resilient materials needed to ensure the nation's leadership in the AI race.

For more information, view the ACA press release: New industry report predicts U.S. will need 1million tons of cement for AI infrastructure by 2028.

PCA - Portland Cement Association published this content on March 16, 2026, and is solely responsible for the information contained herein. Distributed via Public Technologies (PUBT), unedited and unaltered, on March 16, 2026 at 19:10 UTC. If you believe the information included in the content is inaccurate or outdated and requires editing or removal, please contact us at [email protected]