Trump Suggests China Is Stirring US Data Center Backlash: What We Know

President Donald Trump has hinted that China could be contributing to the growing opposition in the United States to data centers. When questioned by Fox News host Laura Ingraham about the lack of support for data centers near homes, Trump pointed to "a lot of people" suggesting the issue is tied to China and its influence. He further warned that rejecting data centers could result in the loss of investments and jobs, calling them "the oil of the next 50 years."

This comment follows disclosures by X, previously known as Twitter, and OpenAI regarding Chinese-linked online influence tactics targeting U.S. debates on data centers. However, the evidence suggests that while China may be amplifying existing concerns, there is little proof that China created or primarily controls the backlash.

Trump's remarks come before a scheduled visit by Chinese President Xi Jinping to the United States. X's safety team investigated "suspected Chinese inauthentic accounts" and discovered a bot farm of around 200,000 accounts. Of these, 200 were found to be spreading misinformation about AI data centers impacting electricity prices and straining power grids, often portraying data center companies as profiting at consumers' expense.

OpenAI also found that a cluster of ChatGPT accounts, likely originating from China, were part of a covert influence operation named "Data Center Bandwagon," generating English language posts and images to exploit and amplify existing public concerns. Nevertheless, this does not necessarily mean that American concerns about data centers are wholly influenced by such foreign interventions.

Some researchers argue that most of the opposition is homegrown, with little evidence of significant foreign intervention.