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Republicans Claim Anti-Data Center Movement Is a Chinese Psy-Op

A group of Republican lawmakers is asking the FBI to investigate whether public opposition to AI data centers is a Chinese influence campaign, citing reports from the Bitcoin Policy Institute and Power the Future. The letter suggests that Sen. Bernie Sanders, who has called for a moratorium on data centers, may have been influenced by two professors from China who participated in a panel he hosted.

The push to frame grassroots opposition to data centers as a foreign psy-op could reshape how local environmental and community concerns are treated in national security and AI policy debates.

Key details

• Republican Reps. Guthrie, Joyce, and Latta sent an open letter to the FBI director and Trump’s science advisors requesting a briefing by June 18 on alleged Chinese influence campaigns against U.S. AI infrastructure.
• The letter cites investigations by the Bitcoin Policy Institute and Power the Future, an energy advocacy group that opposes pro-environment groups.
• One major example of local backlash is in Utah, where residents oppose a planned 40,000-acre data center that would consume more than twice the energy used by the entire state.
• The push for faster AI buildout is often framed as a national security imperative, with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang urging aggressive adoption of AI technology.

Discussion angles

• Commenters argue that opposition is not to data centers themselves but to the massive infrastructure rollout that fails to consider impacts on local communities, utilities, and the environment.
• Some Reddit users dismiss the Republican claim as projection or a tactic to discredit legitimate local concerns, pointing to other Republican statements they view as unreliable.
• Several commenters suggest that if data centers are so beneficial, they should be built near the lawmakers’ own homes or communities.
• A common reaction is to treat the psy-op claim as a political deflection, with some commenters speculating the accusation could be turned back on the accusers.