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By Jeff Duncan
U.S. Representative
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America's lead in artificial intelligence is often discussed in terms of chips, software, and increasingly powerful AI models. Those advantages matter. But winning the AI race will require more than technological innovation. It will require the infrastructure necessary to deploy that innovation at scale.
Data centers and the infrastructures that support them are rapidly becoming strategic assets in their own right. Much as railroads, ports, and industrial facilities once underpinned American economic and military strength, AI infrastructure is emerging as a foundation of national power in the twenty-first century. The nation that can build and power this infrastructure will enjoy a significant advantage in the technologies that will define the twenty-first century.
History offers an important lesson. The United States did not become the Arsenal of Democracy during World War II simply because it possessed great ideas. America prevailed because it could both invent and build. Technological innovation mattered, but so did possessing the industrial capacity that could transform those innovations into national power. Artificial intelligence presents a similar challenge today.
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The United States continues to lead the world in AI innovation. American companies are developing many of the world's most advanced models and remain at the forefront of semiconductor design and AI investment. But technological leadership alone is not enough. Those innovations must ultimately be translated into real-world capability.
AI systems require enormous computing power provided by data centers. Those facilities, in turn, depend on a broader ecosystem of supporting infrastructure, including reliable energy grids and modern communications networks. The countries that can build this ecosystem most effectively will enjoy a significant advantage in the years ahead.
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China already appears to understand this reality and is investing aggressively not only in AI development itself but also in the infrastructure needed to support it. At the same time, a growing body of reporting suggests that Beijing may be funding opposition efforts to the very infrastructure America needs to maintain its lead. This would represent a particularly troubling development.
According to a report from the American Energy Institute, “The opposition to U.S. data center construction is not a spontaneous grassroots movement. It is a coordinated campaign financed in substantial part by foreign donors, operating through a network of national advocacy organizations and their local chapters.” Other reports from organizations, including the Bitcoin Policy Institute and Power The Future, have identified similar concerns involving foreign influence networks, state-backed propaganda outlets, and organized opposition to AI-related infrastructure projects.
Taken together, these reports raise an important strategic question. Actors seeking to impede American progress in artificial intelligence need not surpass U.S. firms in innovation or replicate their technological capabilities. All they need to do is target the infrastructure required to deploy those capabilities at scale, creating bottlenecks that constrain the realization of existing advantages. That is where Congress has a responsibility to step in.
America’s permitting systems and safeguards against foreign interference are not designed for an era in which adversaries beyond our border can exploit local disputes to delay strategic infrastructure. A data center fight in one community may look like a zoning dispute. A campaign against generation or transmission capacity in another may look like ordinary environmental advocacy. But if foreign-linked funding, propaganda, or coordination is helping connect and amplify those fights, then the issue becomes much larger than local land use.
Congress recently requested a briefing from the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology and the Federal Bureau of Investigation about these threats and should follow up by holding hearings to examine the extent to which foreign entities are engaging in influence operations to hamper the development of America’s AI infrastructure ecosystem. Lawmakers should assess whether existing funding transparency requirements adequately expose foreign involvement in infrastructure-related advocacy and whether federal agencies have the tools needed to identify coordinated campaigns against strategic projects.
But hearings should not be the end of the response. Congress should also recognize that the infrastructure side of the AI race deserves the same strategic urgency Washington has brought to semiconductor manufacturing and other defense industrial capacities. That means critical infrastructure designation for major AI projects and expedited permitting pathways for data centers, and electrical generation and transmission assets essential to America’s long-term competitiveness.
The point is not to silence communities or eliminate legitimate local review. It is important to recognize that major AI infrastructure now has national implications. America can respect local concerns while still ensuring that strategic projects are not delayed for years by outdated processes or foreign-backed campaigns designed to exploit them.
The lesson of the Arsenal of Democracy remains relevant. America’s advantage has never been innovation alone. It has been the ability to turn innovation into capability by building at scale. The AI race will be no different and Congress must respond with clarity and urgency.
Congressman Jeff Duncan represented South Carolina’s 3rd District from 2011-2025 and served on the House Committee on Homeland Security and as the Chairman of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Energy, Grid Security and Climate.
The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.
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