China fueling U.S. data center resistance, AI groups claim

Axios Axios —

The https://www.axios.com/technology/automation-and-ai" target="_blank">AI industry, battling concerns about its impact on jobs and energy costs, is accusing China-linked actors of using social media to fan opposition to the data centers powering America's AI boom.

Why it matters: As the U.S. and China race for AI supremacy, resistance to data centers is threatening the industry's massive buildout plans here — and AI leaders believe foreign actors are stoking the backlash.

State of play: Pro-AI groups say they've been tracking a barrage of what they believe are bot-driven social media messages, which they argue is being driven by China, its proxies and other countries in its sphere of influence.

  • "Americans have AI anxiety for a variety of reasons, and that makes it particularly susceptible to disinformation about data centers," said Steve DelBianco, president and CEO of NetChoice, a tech industry trade association.

Data center critics counter that the industry is using China as a bogeyman to try to deflect attention from well-documented opposition in communities across the U.S.

  • "I know for a fact [data center opposition] is organic. How?

    Because I talk to people, all over the country, searching for help to stop the industrialization of their communities," Elena Schlossberg, a Northern Virginia-based anti-data center activist, told Axios.

The AI groups admit they can't precisely quantify how many anti-data center posts are being driven by entities in China and its proxies.

But they say they've catalogued several recent waves of posts that originated in foreign countries.

A sampling:

Other social media posts — some originating in https://x.com/forallcurious/status/2057283930978701747" target="_blank">South Asia and https://x.com/chiky_handlr/status/2058282524091007125" target="_blank">North Africa — are highlighting criticism and growing protests over the Stratos Project, a planned 40,000-acre data center campus in northwestern Utah.

  • TV personality and investor Kevin O'Leary, who's backing the Utah project, has accused China of spreading misinformation and fomenting opposition.

    O'Leary is now https://x.com/_perloj/status/2062551177938481608?s=20" target="_blank">scaling back the project amid public pressure, NBC reported.

  • The project's critics insist their protests are organic.

Yes, but: Polls indicate support for data centers in the U.S. is strikingly low — and those in the AI community acknowledge it's not just China driving such feelings.

What's next: Pro-AI groups say they're turning to Congress to sound the alarm on what they see as a China-led effort to incite resistance to data centers.

  • Chuck Flint, executive director of the Coalition for Affordability & Prosperity — a group that opposes data-center regulation — asked the congressional intelligence committee chairs to investigate foreign interference aimed at "decelerating the construction of" data centers.
  • "The factually dubious anti-data center, anti-AI narrative that is being driven by foreign accounts on social media deserves immediate congressional attention," said Taylor Budowich, a former Trump White House official and founder of the pro-AI Innovation Council Action Inc.
  • House Ways & Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith, meanwhile, has https://www.notus.org/congress/ways-and-means-investigating-anti-data-center-nonprofits-china" target="_blank">accused U.S.-based nonprofits of taking money from China and fomenting opposition to data centers.

The other side: "When any corporation wants to dodge legitimate criticism they point to 'outside agitators,' " Tim Donaghy, research director for the environmental group Greenpeace USA, told Axios.

  • "It's lazy and insulting to the communities who are raising real concerns."

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