Data story · Counted 11 November 2026
2,897 federal grants mention AI in fiscal 2025. The National Science Foundation gave 55.8% of the dollars.
USAspending lists 2,897 fiscal 2025 grant awards whose text contains "artificial intelligence".[1] A keyword match is not a count of AI research: it finds the phrase, not the purpose.
$2.39 billion
obligated in fiscal 2025 on those grants, across 17 agencies and 902 recipients.[1]
Two agencies give 87.8% of the dollars: the National Science Foundation 55.8% and Health and Human Services 32.0%. With Commerce 4.8%, Energy 3.5% and Agriculture 2.0%, five agencies give 98.1%.[1]
The count rose from 2,565 grants in fiscal 2024 to 2,897 in fiscal 2025, 12.9% more.[1]
By agency
| Awarding agency | $ millions | Share | Awards in the list |
|---|---|---|---|
| National Science Foundation | 1331.7 | 55.8% | 2304 |
| Health and Human Services | 764.2 | 32.0% | 147 |
| Commerce | 115.0 | 4.8% | 68 |
| Energy | 82.6 | 3.5% | 53 |
| Agriculture | 47.6 | 2.0% | 128 |
| Defense | 18.3 | 0.8% | 70 |
| Interior | 12.5 | 0.5% | 19 |
| Institute of Museum and Library Services | 7.2 | 0.3% | 22 |
| Transportation | 5.8 | 0.2% | 15 |
| Education | 4.1 | 0.2% | 12 |
| 7 other agencies, net | −2.6 | −0.1% | 59 |
The seven other agencies add up to a net −2.6 million: in fiscal 2025 more was taken back on their matching grants than was newly obligated.[1]
The largest recipients
| Recipient | $ millions | Share |
|---|---|---|
| University of Texas at Austin | 144.8 | 6.1% |
| GridUnity, Inc. | 49.5 | 2.1% |
| Georgia Tech Research Corp. | 46.5 | 1.9% |
Together the three hold 10.1% of the dollars; the other 899 recipients share the rest.[1]
Data: agencies-fy2025.csv · awards-by-year.csv
Why fiscal 2025, not 2026
The same search for fiscal 2026 finds 2,989 grants and $2.02 billion, but the year is far from complete on USAspending. Across all grants, with no keyword, it lists $310.8 billion for fiscal 2026 against $1,244.9 billion for fiscal 2025 and $1,211.5 billion for fiscal 2024. Health and Human Services shows $1.7 billion for fiscal 2026 against $825.5 billion the year before, and none of its fiscal 2026 grants match the keyword.[1] USAspending does not say why; this page counts the last year that looks whole.
How it was counted
- One search on USAspending's public API: the keyword "artificial intelligence", grant award types 02 to 05 (block grants, formula grants, project grants and cooperative agreements), each federal fiscal year.[1]
- Award counts are USAspending's own count for each year. Dollars are the fiscal 2025 obligations it reports by awarding agency, added up.
- Two checks passed: the award list has 2,897 rows, the same as the count, and the agency amounts and the recipient amounts add up to the same total within a dollar.
Limits
- The keyword search matches the phrase in an award's text fields, not the grant itself. AI work described in other words is missing, and some matches mention AI in passing.
- Grants only: contracts, loans and other assistance are not included.
- Fiscal 2025 figures can still change as agencies correct their reports.
- Nothing here says what the grants paid for or what they produced.
More on the federal AI picture: 373 federal contracts mention AI in fiscal 2026 · 3,611 uses of AI on the federal list · AI in the public sector.
Sources
- USAspending.gov, the official source of federal spending data, API version 2: award counts, the award list and obligations by awarding agency and by recipient, keyword "artificial intelligence", grant award types 02 to 05; and all grants by awarding agency for fiscal 2024 to 2026, no keyword. Counted by this site. Read 11 November 2026. The same search can be run at usaspending.gov/search.