TL;DR · 30-second read

The Short Version

The United States’ main cyber-defense agency has set up a new network of private meeting groups. In them, power companies, water utilities, telecom firms and other operators of essential services can trade warnings about hackers and physical threats with government officials.

It costs about $2.45 million a year and has up to eight federal staff. That is a small team for the whole country.

Why it matters: the giant computer warehouses that run artificial intelligence do not fit neatly into any existing group. They will have to organize themselves to get a voice.

The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has formed the Alliance of National Councils for Homeland Operational Resilience–Critical Infrastructure (ANCHOR-CI), Industrial Cyber reported on July 2, 2026. ANCHOR-CI is an advisory framework chartered by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) that brings government and critical infrastructure owners and operators together to share sensitive threat information and develop security and resilience recommendations.

The framework allows four kinds of councils: sector, cross-sector, industry and regional. It is exempt from the Federal Advisory Committee Act, so all eligible meetings are closed to the public. It will run for an initial two years at an estimated annual operating cost of $2.45 million, funded by CISA, covering up to eight full-time federal employees. DHS set out the council’s composition in a Federal Register notice.

Executive Summary

ANCHOR-CI restores a confidential, structured channel between the federal government and the companies that run the country’s power grids, networks, water systems and other essential services. Councils will review the threat environment, discuss vulnerabilities and send recommendations to DHS through CISA. DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin called the framework “a game changer in how the public and private sectors collaborate and share information.”

The structure matters more than the rhetoric. Sector councils follow federally designated sectors. A new category of industry councils, along with explicit room for “emerging industries and technologies not aligned with a specific critical infrastructure sector,” creates a possible route for operators that fall between sectors. AI data centers are the most prominent example. That route is permissive rather than guaranteed, and a lean federal budget means much of the organizing is likely to fall to industry itself.

For power and data-center operators, ANCHOR-CI creates no new rules. It creates access: a closed room where threat intelligence and operational concerns can be shared candidly, and where the recommendations DHS receives get shaped.

A Closed-Door Forum Returns

The most consequential line in the announcement is the exemption from the Federal Advisory Committee Act. That 1972 law generally requires federal advisory bodies to meet in public and publish their records. Because ANCHOR-CI is exempt, its councils can meet privately, and every eligible meeting will. For operators, that is the point. A utility is unlikely to describe a weakness in its substation controls in a room that ends up in the public record. The same goes for a data-center operator describing an intrusion attempt on its building-management systems.

The framework also fills a gap. In early 2025, DHS ended the Critical Infrastructure Partnership Advisory Council (CIPAC), the earlier exempt forum through which industry-led sector coordinating councils met government counterparts. ANCHOR-CI is described as building on that previous structure while widening who can take part. The practical test is how quickly the new rooms fill. Only councils with an approved charter and a balanced membership list may hold meetings, so the forum exists on paper before it exists in practice.

Closed meetings carry a cost that deserves a fair hearing. The councils’ output is advice and recommendations delivered to DHS through CISA, and the public will not see the deliberations behind them. The trade-off is not new, since the prior forum worked the same way. It does, however, put weight on how CISA reports what it does with the advice it receives.

Why AI Data Centers Get a Door, Not a Seat

Sector councils are organized around federally designated sectors. Data centers have no designated sector of their own. These warehouse-scale buildings house the servers that train and run AI models. Their computing equipment falls under information technology and their fiber links under communications, and their fast-rising electricity demand makes them a major customer of the energy sector. This applies to a hyperscaler, one of the few cloud giants that build their own campuses. It also applies to a colocation provider, a landlord that rents space, power and cooling to many tenants. For both, security concerns can end up split across several tables.

ANCHOR-CI adds two mechanisms that could change this. First, Critical Infrastructure Industry Councils may be created for industries that “manage or control critical systems and assets but do not fit neatly within existing sector structures.” Second, membership can extend to entities from emerging industries and technologies not aligned with a specific sector. Cross-sector councils, meanwhile, are designed for exactly the interdependencies where a large AI campus and the grid that feeds it share risk.

The operative word is “may.” An industry council is permitted, not promised. Membership outside the defined categories is at the discretion of the council or the CISA director. No council can meet until its charter is approved and its membership balanced. Nothing in the announcement names data centers or AI computing as a priority. The framework opens a door for them. Getting a seat will depend on whether operators and their trade associations put forward a credible, balanced council.

$2.45 Million and Eight Staff: Industry Carries the Load

CISA estimates ANCHOR-CI’s annual operating cost at $2.45 million. That covers administrative expenses, contract support and up to eight full-time federal employees, and excludes extras such as invitational travel. A full-time Designated Federal Officer must approve agendas, attend every meeting and ensure minutes are produced. That is a lean federal footprint for a framework that allows four council types spanning every designated sector plus regional and cross-sector bodies.

The likely consequence is that much of the work of convening councils, drafting recommendations and sustaining momentum will fall to members. Non-federal participants are unpaid, may be required to sign non-disclosure agreements, and serve for two-year charter terms. For a utility or data-center operator, joining means committing senior security and operations staff time without compensation. Large firms can absorb that cost more easily than rural cooperatives or small regional operators, which are the participants the regional councils are meant to bring in.

What Changes for Power and Data-Center Operators

For utilities, grid operators and data-center owners, ANCHOR-CI changes the venue rather than the rules. It adds no security requirement and no reporting mandate. What it changes is access: a confidential channel for sharing threat information with government, hearing what agencies are seeing, and shaping the recommendations DHS receives.

Regional coordinating councils may matter most where AI buildout and grid strain meet locally. Many new data-center campuses are being built wherever power can be secured, including in rural areas. The framework explicitly aims to give rural infrastructure entities a voice in national resilience planning. Operators should watch whether a regional council actually forms in a data-center corridor during the initial two-year term.

Background

CISA is the federal agency responsible for coordinating the security and resilience of U.S. critical infrastructure: the systems whose disruption would harm national security, the economy or public safety. That infrastructure is divided into federally designated sectors, sixteen under long-standing federal policy, including energy, communications, information technology and water. For years, industry-led Sector Coordinating Councils and their government counterparts, Government Coordinating Councils, met through the Critical Infrastructure Partnership Advisory Council, a closed forum that DHS ended in early 2025.

Data centers have become central to that landscape without fitting neatly into it. The rapid buildout of AI computing has turned them into some of the largest new electricity customers on the grid and core dependencies for nearly every other sector. Yet they have no designated sector of their own. ANCHOR-CI’s industry and cross-sector councils are the framework’s answer to infrastructure that sits between the lines.

Sources

Source: CISA launches ANCHOR-CI to strengthen critical infrastructure security and resilience, improve cyber coordination, Industrial Cyber’s report on the new DHS-chartered advisory council framework for critical infrastructure operators.