Senator Tom Cotton is pushing federal investigators to examine whether China is secretly funding campaigns against America's AI infrastructure, arguing that slowing U.S. data center development could hand Beijing an advantage in the global artificial intelligence race. The Arkansas Republican sent a letter to Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche requesting a probe into what he describes as a coordinated effort to shape American public opinion and policy against AI development.

What Is the Evidence Behind Cotton's Allegations?

Cotton's request follows a report released by the Bitcoin Policy Institute, a Washington-based think tank, alleging that Chinese state media, foreign-funded advocacy groups, and a network of organizations backed by American tech entrepreneur Neville Roy Singham have spent years building opposition to U.S. data center construction and AI infrastructure projects. The report, titled "Foreign Influence in the Campaign Against American AI," identifies three separate streams of influence working in alignment: Chinese state media, the Singham network of nonprofits, and foreign-funded advocacy organizations.

Singham, a self-described Marxist and founder of the tech company Thoughtworks, which he sold in 2017, now lives in Shanghai and has become the focus of congressional scrutiny. According to Fox News Digital's reporting, Singham has funneled $278 million into a series of nonprofits since his 2017 marriage to Jodie Evans, the co-founder of CodePink. These organizations have participated in and led campaigns opposing AI development, semiconductor export controls, and large-scale data center projects across the United States.

How Are These Groups Organizing Opposition to U.S. AI Infrastructure?

The Singham-funded network includes organizations such as CodePink, the People's Forum, Tricontinental, and BreakThrough News. These groups have worked closely with self-described communist organizations in the U.S., including the ANSWER Coalition and the Party for Socialism and Liberation, which have organized protests against major American technology, defense, and logistics companies. The protest campaigns target firms like Palantir Technologies, Lockheed-Martin, and Google, focusing on issues where China has significant geopolitical interests, including Israel, Iran, Venezuela, Cuba, South Korea, and Greenland.

One key theme emerging in recent protests centers on the rising electricity costs associated with operating data centers. Pro-China protesters have seized on high electrical bills that consumers have experienced in recent months, framing data center expansion as a burden on ordinary Americans. This messaging strategy appears designed to exploit legitimate public concerns about energy costs to build grassroots opposition to AI infrastructure development.

Steps Lawmakers Are Taking to Address the Issue

• Legislative Action: Cotton introduced the "DATA Act of 2026," which would lift regulatory controls to allow manufacturers, data centers, and other energy-intensive industries to build new electricity systems separate from the consumer electrical grid, reducing pressure on public utilities.
• Congressional Inquiries: Senate and House lawmakers have launched formal inquiries into the nonprofits in the Singham network, questioning whether these groups should be required to register as "foreign agents" under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), which demands that entities working for foreign interests register with the U.S. Justice Department.
• Justice Department Investigation: Cotton's letter urges the Department of Justice to examine whether foreign actors are attempting to shape U.S. public opinion and policy against data centers and AI development through coordinated campaigns.

"Recent reports show that Communist China is attempting to influence our policy and public opinion on data centers. The reason is obvious: they want to kneecap our processing power to win the AI race," said Senator Tom Cotton.

Senator Tom Cotton, U.S. Senator from Arkansas

Why Does AI Infrastructure Matter in U.S.-China Competition?

Cotton argues that America's position in artificial intelligence will have sweeping implications for the country's economic strength, military capabilities, diplomatic influence, and national security. Data centers and AI infrastructure represent the technological foundation upon which advanced AI systems are built and trained. Without sufficient domestic computing capacity, the United States risks falling behind China in developing and deploying cutting-edge AI technologies.

The broader geopolitical context underscores these concerns. As detailed in analysis from Fair Observer, the U.S. and China are engaged in a structural competition over control of critical technologies including semiconductors, artificial intelligence, quantum computing, and telecommunications infrastructure. These systems have become the strategic high ground of the modern age, shaping not only economic productivity but also military capability, financial influence, and surveillance architecture.

China's approach to this competition is deliberate and strategic. President Xi Jinping's industrial policy focuses on reducing strategic vulnerability while increasing systemic leverage, with Beijing seeking technological self-sufficiency not because it rejects globalization entirely, but because it no longer trusts globalization to remain politically neutral. Meanwhile, Washington increasingly interprets technological dependence on China as a national security risk, leading to semiconductor restrictions, export controls, and industrial subsidies.

What Is the "Red-Green-Green Alliance" and Why Does It Matter?

Experts warn that climate activists, anti-Israel protesters, and other activist movements with very different agendas have become unlikely allies united by shared funding from China and a common disdain for American technological advancement. This phenomenon is described as a "red-green-green alliance," an ideological overlap between communist movements (red), Islamist activism (green), and environmental protest groups (green). The alignment suggests that Chinese influence operations are not targeting a single constituency but rather exploiting existing divisions and concerns across multiple activist communities to build a broad coalition against U.S. AI infrastructure.

Cotton warned that foreign adversaries should not be allowed to exploit legitimate public concerns over energy use, utility costs, and water consumption to slow U.S. technological development. The challenge for policymakers is distinguishing between genuine environmental and economic concerns and coordinated foreign influence campaigns designed to weaken American technological competitiveness.

The investigation Cotton has requested represents an attempt to determine whether these protest movements constitute violations of the Foreign Agents Registration Act, which requires disclosure when individuals or organizations work on behalf of foreign governments or their interests. If the Justice Department finds evidence of coordinated foreign influence, it could lead to legal action against the organizations involved and force greater transparency about their funding sources and foreign connections.