(Photo by Natalie Behring/Getty Images)
As protests over AI data center construction grow and intensify, so does suspicion that China is secretly fueling the opposition.
On Thursday, three Republican House members sent a letter to the FBI and White House advisors, urging the Trump administration to investigate “foreign influence campaigns and ‘billionaire-backed activism’ to slow US AI development.”
“The fact that Chinese Communist Party-backed entities and other foreign adversaries may be attempting to influence decisions related to American data center infrastructure puts into perspective how serious of a fight we are in,” House Energy and Commerce Chairman Brett Guthrie of Kentucky said in a statement.
“Americans deserve to know who is bankrolling the disinformation campaign that seeks to block critical infrastructure investments,” he added.
The letter arrives amid signs that pro-AI supporters are trying to blame China for the backlash to data center construction, even as residents in affected communities are protesting real concerns, including the environmental toll, electricity price hikes, and future AI-driven job losses. A Wired investigation recently discovered a group tied to OpenAI and Palantir “funding a campaign to spread pro-AI messaging and stoke fears about China” via influencers.
Thursday’s 3-page letter is addressed to FBI Director Kash Patel, as well as David Sacks and Michael Kratsios, who co-chair the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology. It alleges that many anti-AI foreign influence campaigns have originated in China. But its only evidence is a pair of reports from the Bitcoin Policy Institute and Power the Future, a group that claims “Al Gore Was Wrong About Everything,” and advocates for new fossil fuel plants.
The Power the Future report was published last month and frames AI data center protests as part of “manufactured outrage” from environmental activists, including the Sierra Club, which it claims is under federal investigation for possibly receiving covert funding from Russia and China. But clicking the link about the investigation merely cites a 2020 report about Republicans calling for the Justice Department to probe environmental groups over the foreign funding.
The Bitcoin Policy Institute report, on the other hand, highlights the threat of Chinese and Russian state-run media outlets running campaigns critical of US data center development. The report also notes that US Sen. Bernie Sanders, a major critic of US data center construction, held a panel in April that featured two professors from China: Yi Zeng, who focuses on AI governance and safety, and Xue Lan, who chairs the country’s National Expert Committee on Next Generation AI governance.
Yi and Xue were previously named among the most influential people in AI by Time Magazine. However, the Bitcoin Policy Institute alleges the “panel was the culmination of an influence campaign” involving Chinese state-run media, “CCP-aligned US nonprofit ecosystem,” and billionaire money allegedly flowing to Sanders and US Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who’ve both pushed a bill to pause data center construction nationwide.
Still, even the Bitcoin Policy Institute says: “The report acknowledges that American citizens have legitimate concerns about water use, energy costs, and grid capacity, concerns that deserve serious local deliberation. But the report argues that local deliberation works only when the public can see who is bankrolling and influencing the campaigns shaping the debate.”
Rep. Guthrie, as well as Reps. John Joyce of Pennsylvania and Bob Latta of Ohio are requesting that the FBI or White House brief the House Energy and Commerce Committee on "how the Administration is investigating the foreign influence campaigns and taking action to mitigate these efforts...no later than June 18, 2026."