GAITHERSBURG, Md. — The U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has expanded its collaboration with the nonprofit MITRE 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 centers to advance the delivery of AI-based technology solutions to strengthen U.S. manufacturing and cybersecurity for critical infrastructure.

“This investment will help accelerate the application of AI in American manufacturing and help drive the American manufacturing renaissance,” said Deputy Secretary of Commerce Paul Dabbar. “We can harness AI to increase the competitiveness of our manufacturers and attract investment in America.”

The award is an important step in implementing NIST’s Strategy for American Technology Leadership in the 21st Century to accelerate the progress of critical and emerging technologies from development to adoption, in close partnership with U.S. industry.

“Our goal is to remove barriers to American AI innovation and accelerate the application of our AI technologies around the world,” said Acting Under Secretary of Commerce for Standards and Technology and Acting NIST Director Craig Burkhardt. “This new agreement with MITRE will focus on enhancing the ability of U.S. companies to make high-value products more efficiently, meet market demands domestically and internationally, and catalyze discovery and commercialization of new technologies and devices.”

The AI Economic Security Center for U.S. Manufacturing Productivity and the AI Economic Security Center to Secure U.S. Critical Infrastructure from Cyberthreats will drive the development and adoption of AI-driven tools, or “agents,” in these two national priority areas. The centers will develop the technology evaluations and advancements that are necessary to effectively protect U.S. dominance in AI innovation, address threats from adversaries’ use of AI, and reduce risks from reliance on insecure AI.

NIST will rely on existing resources to build on its expertise and carry forward recommendations in the White House’s July 2025 America’s AI Action Plan, including Pillar I: Accelerate AI Innovation and Pillar II: Build American AI Infrastructure. 

These are important first steps in NIST’s programmatic plan to coordinate innovation-based research efforts for accelerating 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.

The partnership will leverage MITRE’s long-standing mission to operate federally funded research and development centers. NIST expects the AI centers to enable breakthroughs in applied science and advanced technology and deliver disruptive innovative solutions to tackle the most pressing challenges facing the nation.

This agreement expands NIST’s portfolio of AI-focused programs and builds on the private-public partnerships leveraged by the Center for AI Standards and Innovation (CAISI), which leads evaluations of U.S. and adversary systems and contributes to NIST’s efforts to develop best practices. CAISI has established voluntary agreements with multiple developers of leading-edge or “frontier” AI models to enable collaborative research and voluntary testing of industry models for priority national security capabilities.

In the coming months, NIST plans to announce its award for the AI for Resilient Manufacturing Institute, through the Manufacturing USA program. With up to $70 million in investment over a five-year period from NIST and at least that much in nonfederal funding, the institute will bring together expertise in AI, manufacturing and supply chain networks to promote manufacturing resilience.

Combined, these efforts will enhance NIST’s core research, standards and technology mission to tackle barriers preventing U.S. innovation and leadership in AI.