The U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has expanded its collaboration with the nonprofit MITER Corporation as part of its efforts to ensure U.S. leadership in artificial intelligence (AI). Through this award, NIST is investing $20 million to establish two AI centers, the AI Economic Security Center for US Manufacturing Productivity and the AI Economic Security Center to Secure US Critical Infrastructure from Cyberthreats, which will advance the delivery of AI-based technology solutions, strengthening American manufacturing and critical infrastructure cybersecurity.
These centers will drive the development and adoption of AI-based tools or agents in these national priority areas. The AI Centers will develop the assessments and technological advancements needed to effectively protect U.S. dominance in AI innovation, address threats from adversaries’ use of AI, and reduce risks from relying on insecure AI.
Announced in December, the award focuses on execution NIST’s strategy for American technology leadership in the 21st century aims to accelerate the progress of critical and emerging technologies from development to adoption, in close partnership with American industry. NIST will accelerate U.S. engagement and leadership in international standards for critical and emerging technologies (CET), drive the development and adoption of science-based standards for CET to promote domestic commerce, strengthen strategic engagement, participation, and leadership in international standards bodies, and coordinate standards policy across the government.
“This investment will help accelerate the application of AI in U.S. manufacturing and help drive the renaissance of America’s manufacturing sector.” said Paul Dabbar, Assistant Secretary of Commerce, in a statement to the media. “We can leverage AI to increase the competitiveness of our manufacturers and attract investment to America. »
“Our goal is to remove barriers to American innovation in AI and accelerate the application of our AI technologies around the world,” said Craig Burkhardt, Under Secretary of Commerce for Standards and Technology and Acting Director of NIST. “This new agreement with MITER will focus on strengthening the ability of U.S. companies to more efficiently manufacture high-value products, meet domestic and international market demands, and catalyze the discovery and commercialization of new technologies and devices.
The partnership will leverage MITER’s long-standing mission to operate federally funded research and development centers. NIST hopes that AI centers will enable breakthroughs in applied sciences and advanced technologies and provide solutions to address the most pressing challenges.
The agreement expands NIST’s portfolio of AI-focused programs, building on public-private partnerships leveraged by the Center for AI Standards and Innovation (CAISI), which leads assessments of U.S. and adversary systems and contributes to NIST’s efforts to develop best practices. CAISI has entered into voluntary agreements with several developers of cutting-edge AI models or “frontiers” to enable collaborative research and voluntary testing of industrial models for priority national security capabilities.
NIST will leverage existing resources to build on its expertise and implement the recommendations of the July 2025 White House report. America’s AI Action Planincluding Pillar I: Accelerating AI Innovation and Pillar II: Building America’s AI Infrastructure. These are important first steps in NIST’s programmatic plan to coordinate innovation-based research efforts to accelerate the development and deployment of critical technologies in areas of national priority.
Building on its long history of public-private collaboration, NIST plans to use adaptive and flexible partnerships to develop, pilot, and implement new advances to establish U.S. leadership and innovation in critical and emerging technologies such as AI, quantum information science and technology, and biotechnology.
Commenting on the decision, Bill Moore, CEO of Xonaidentified NIST’s announcement as an important step toward realizing the deployment of AI in the manufacturing and critical infrastructure sectors, particularly in environments where errors lead to physical and operational consequences.
“As AI systems move beyond observation to recommendation and action at machine speed, questions of control and accountability become inevitable,” Moore wrote in an emailed statement. “AI has a place in these environments, but many operating and security models have been built for stability and human-paced decision-making. The success of these centers will depend on whether AI adoption is accompanied by disciplined approaches to access, authority, visibility, and experimentation. Success will also require companies and technology providers to engage early, share real-world constraints, and design systems of AI that reflect the real functioning of industrial environments.
In the coming months, NIST plans to announce its price for the AI Institute for Resilient Manufacturing through the Made in the USA program. With up to $70 million in investment over five years from NIST and at least as much in non-federal funding, the institute will bring together its expertise in AI, manufacturing, and supply chain networks to promote manufacturing resilience. Together, these efforts will strengthen NIST’s core research, standards, and technology mission to remove barriers that prevent U.S. innovation and leadership in AI.
