Trump Orders Technological Upgrades in Infrastructure Permitting Processes

As the president imposes retaliatory tariffs, companies such as Nvidia are committing to setting up manufacturing hubs in the country.

Construction workers build the Hanford Viaduct over Highway 198 as part of the California High Speed Rail transit project in Hanford, Calif., on Feb. 12, 2025. Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images

President Donald Trump issued a memorandum to expeditiously conduct environmental reviews and evaluate permits for leveraging modern technology and fast-tracking related projects in the country.

Trump has ordered executive departments and agencies to “make maximum use of technology in environmental review and permitting processes for infrastructure projects of all kinds, such as roads, bridges, mines, factories, power plants, and others,” according to an April 15 presidential memorandum published by the White House.

The statement said inefficient review processes that don’t leverage available technology currently impose “significant delay” on projects, causing adverse financial effects.

Trump ordered the digitizing of the application and review process, the acceleration of processing times in a way that does not affect review quality, the reduction of documentation lengths, and improved interagency coordination and transparency, among other measures.

The president also called for establishing an interagency Permitting Innovation Center to facilitate broader adoption of coordinated tech applications.

The memorandum builds upon Trump’s executive order, “Unleashing American Energy,” issued on Jan. 20, which called for “efficient permitting” through simplifying the permitting process.

Trump has given the chairman of the Council on Environmental Quality, along with relevant agencies, 45 days to issue a Permitting Technology Action Plan for modernizing federal permitting processes with regard to infrastructure projects.

The memorandum was issued following a major tech announcement from Nvidia, a manufacturer of artificial intelligence (AI) chips, which said that the company will soon begin to build factories in the United States for manufacturing supercomputers.

AI Made in America

On April 14, California-based Nvidia said in a statement that it has “commissioned more than a million square feet of manufacturing space to build and test NVIDIA Blackwell chips in Arizona and AI supercomputers in Texas.”

“Tens of ‘gigawatt AI factories’ are expected to be built in the coming years,” the company said, adding that the venture is expected to create hundreds of thousands of jobs and drive trillions of dollars in economic activity over the coming decades.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said, “The engines of the world’s AI infrastructure are being built in the United States for the first time.”

Responding to the announcement, Trump said in an April 15 post on Truth Social, “Nvidia commits 500 billion dollars to build A.I. supercomputers, plus, in the United States exclusively. This is very big and exciting news. All necessary permits will be expedited and quickly delivered to Nvidia, as they will to all companies committing to be part of the Golden Age of America!”

Nvidia’s announcement provided an encouraging boost to the Trump administration, which had come under fire for market losses incurred in the ongoing tariff negotiation with countries around the world.

Trump has paused all reciprocal tariffs imposed on nations that had placed unfair trade barriers against U.S. imports, except for China, as it announced retaliatory tariffs. Trump is currently working out new trading terms with as many as 70 countries. The pause period has been set for 90 days.

Recently, Trump announced that a separate set of tariffs will be placed on China’s semiconductor goods.

“We wanted to uncomplicate it,” he said. “Because we want to make our chips and semiconductors and other things in our country.”

Semiconductor products will be categorized under a different tariff “bucket.”

Investments in manufacturing typically depend on facilities being made subject to favorable terms by government authorities.

In his executive order, Trump said that “all agencies must prioritize efficiency and certainty over any other objectives, including those of activist groups, that do not align with the policy goals ... that could otherwise add delays and ambiguity to the permitting process.”