AI will help build the energy it needs. That’s the case U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright and NVIDIA Vice President of Hyperscale and High-Performance Computing Ian Buck made Thursday morning at the SCSP AI+ Expo. The 30-minute fireside chat, moderated by SCSP president Ylli Bajraktari, was called “Powering the Next American Century.” Their argument: American leadership in AI runs through American leadership in energy. “Energy is life,” Wright said. “The more energy you have, the more affordable energy you have, the more opportunities you have in your society.” The Genesis Mission — the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)’s effort to apply AI to scientific discovery — is where that case meets execution. NVIDIA is among the DOE partners on the mission, building on what Buck called two decades of NVIDIA building supercomputers with the national labs. “NVIDIA is 100% committed and invested in Genesis,” Buck said. “I’ve never seen more excitement across the lab and industry.” From left: NVIDIA’s Ian Buck, U.S.…