China-Linked Influence Campaign Targets America’s AI Buildout as Data Center Backlash Grows

America’s artificial-intelligence boom is running into an increasingly fierce domestic battle over the enormous data centers needed to power it — and new evidence shows that China-linked influence operators have attempted to exploit that dispute as the technological rivalry between Washington and Beijing intensifies.

OpenAI disclosed in June that it banned a cluster of accounts likely originating in China after they used ChatGPT to generate social-media content attacking U.S. data-center development. The operation, which OpenAI called “Data Center Bandwagon,” allegedly produced English- and Chinese-language material while posing as Americans from different backgrounds and criticizing the effect of AI infrastructure on electricity prices and local communities.

The finding has taken on renewed importance as opposition to data-center construction spreads across the United States.

Business Insider reported Friday that some prominent technology investors and AI advocates are increasingly arguing that China may be attempting to capitalize on — or amplify — American opposition to the infrastructure underpinning the nation’s AI industry. Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan described the data-center debate as a “documented psyop,” reflecting growing anxiety in Silicon Valley that anti-infrastructure sentiment could weaken the United States while China continues racing ahead.

There is, however, an important distinction between documented foreign influence activity and claiming that China created America’s entire data-center backlash.

OpenAI itself said it found no evidence that the China-linked campaign meaningfully changed U.S. public opinion. Instead, the operation attempted to exploit concerns that already existed among Americans, including higher electricity costs, water consumption, land use and the effect of massive technology projects on local communities.

Those concerns are significant. A Gallup survey published in May found that 70% of Americans opposed construction of an AI data center in their local area, including 48% who said they strongly opposed it. Only about one-quarter supported such projects near them.

That creates a serious challenge for America.

The United States Cannot Surrender the AI Infrastructure Race

Data centers are not simply warehouses filled with computers. They are becoming strategic infrastructure comparable in importance to semiconductor fabrication plants, electrical grids and telecommunications networks.

Advanced AI requires enormous computing capacity. Without the power generation, chips, cooling systems, networking equipment and data centers required to operate frontier models, the United States risks surrendering technological ground to China.

That competition is already accelerating.

Recent Chinese AI systems have narrowed portions of the technological gap with American developers. The Washington Post reported in July that new models from Chinese companies were challenging assumptions that American AI firms maintained a comfortable lead, intensifying pressure on Washington to maintain the infrastructure and innovation environment necessary for U.S. companies to compete.

Chinese developers also continue pushing aggressively into open-source AI. A powerful model from Beijing-based Moonshot AI attracted enough demand this summer that the company temporarily stopped accepting new subscriptions while expanding computing capacity, illustrating both the rapid growth of Chinese AI and Beijing’s expanding technological ambitions.

America cannot respond by making itself impossible to build in.

If U.S. companies are forced through years of permitting battles while Chinese competitors expand computing infrastructure at enormous scale, the consequences would extend far beyond Silicon Valley.

Leadership in AI will influence military technology, intelligence analysis, cybersecurity, biotechnology, advanced manufacturing, robotics, finance and virtually every major industry of the coming decades.

That makes American computing capacity a matter of economic and national security.