Data Centers & National Security Summit

  • June 24-25, 2026
  • National Harbor, MD

EVENT OVERVIEW

Defense Strategies Institute’s Data Centers & National Security Summit will convene senior leaders, top experts, and strategic decision makers from across the Commercial Sector, Federal Government, DoW, National Labs, and Academia for in-depth discussions on powering and securing critical data center infrastructure in support of national security. This forum aims to explore the technologies and strategies that ensure data centers operate efficiently and securely, with a focus on power management, cooling systems, and operational resilience.

ABOUT THE Data Centers & National Security Summit

TOPICS TO BE COVERED

  • Data, energy, & AI: building the infrastructure for scientific leadership & national security
  • Powering AI dominance: mobilizing federal resources to accelerate U.S. data center infrastructure
  • Delivering technology superiority: data centers as mission-critical infrastructure for the DoW
  • Stargate project insights: developing the physical & digital infrastructure to power next-generation AI
  • Perspectives from the healthcare sector: energy & resilience in mission-critical data centers
  • Harnessing nuclear energy to address rising power demand from data center expansion
  • Connecting data centers, securing networks, & powering resilience in the telecom sector
  • Maximizing energy efficiency & strengthening grid resilience for data center expansion
  • Securing & powering the digital backbone of the global economy across the financial service industry
  • Accelerating cloud computing to support warfighter lethality & mission-effectiveness

The AI boom is driving an unprecedented global build-out of digital infrastructure, with trillions of dollars flowing into data centers that will power the next generation of economic growth, defense capabilities, and technological leadership. As computing capacity, energy availability, and infrastructure security become strategic assets, understanding the intersection of data centers and national security has never been more urgent.

Powering data centers is now a critical national security issue. These facilities underpin essential sectors including defense, finance, healthcare, telecommunication, etc. As AI workloads and cloud demand surge, the energy footprint of data centers is expanding rapidly. In the United States, data centers already account for roughly 4% of national electricity use, a figure expected to more than double by 2030. At the same time, the global market for data center power infrastructure is expected to exceed $50 billion over the next five years, driving rising computing demand, stricter energy efficiency requirements, and the need for resilient and secure energy systems.

Against this backdrop, the 2026 Data Centers & National Security Summit brings together leaders from government, industry, and academia to address the most pressing power, energy, and cooling challenges shaping the future of digital infrastructure. Attendees will gain actionable insights on emerging energy solutions including nuclear and advanced grid strategies, securing and scaling data center infrastructure in an era of geopolitical competition, networking and connectivity strategies to support AI-scale workloads, public-private partnerships driving resilient digital infrastructure, innovative power and cooling solutions, sector-specific approaches to powering and operating data centers across critical infrastructure industries, sustainability, grid resilience, and cost management for next-generation facilities, and much more! Join policymakers, infrastructure operators, technology leaders, and energy experts to explore how the United States can building secure, sustainable, and resilient digital infrastructure powered by next-generation power and cooling solutions for the decades ahead.

Gain Education & Insight: Walk away with knowledge gained from our senior level speakers on some of the complex challenges facing the data center infrastructure community.

Build Partnerships: The agenda is designed to allow for ample networking opportunities and the ability to engage in constructive dialogue among all in attendance.

Influence: Help foster ideas! Share your own insight and knowledge during our interactive sessions. All attendees are encouraged to address our speaker faculty and each other with their questions, comments or ideas.

DSI’s Summit directly supports Federal Government priorities by providing a conduit for officials to efficiently reach audiences outside of their respective offices that directly impact their department’s mission success, at no charge to the government, and in an efficient expenditure of time.

DSI’s Summit will provide a forum to address and improve internal and external initiatives, meet with and hear from partner organizations, disseminate vital capability requirements to industry, increase visibility within the larger community, and generally support their mission.

The Summit is open and complimentary to all DoW and Federal employees and is considered an educational training forum.

Summit is CLOSED TO PRESS / NO RECORDINGS

SPONSORS & EXHIBITORS

The 2026 Data Centers & National Security Summit provides opportunities for exhibit space, round table discussions, product demonstrations, luncheons, and cocktail receptions.

BECOME A SPONSOR or Exhibitor

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