One of the largest pro-artificial intelligence groups plans to deploy tens of millions of dollars to convince battleground state voters.
Build American AI, a pro-AI nonprofit with about $50 million cash on hand, plans to start spending in Kansas, Ohio and Wisconsin, per Axios. The campaign calls for building the infrastructure needed for America to lead on AI while protecting communities and the environment.
“We can protect ratepayers, safeguard our natural resources, respect the right of communities to decide whether they want to welcome this investment, and still build the infrastructure America needs to lead the world in artificial intelligence,” Build American AI wrote. “The continued build out of data centers and new energy infrastructure must benefit communities first and we will support leaders who advance policies that achieve that goal.”
Build American AI declined to respond to a request for comment from the Daily Caller News Foundation.
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“The stakes are too high to allow the loudest and most extreme voices to dictate America’s future. Driving responsible investment away will cost Americans good-paying jobs, weaken communities and undermine America’s ability to lead,” the group continued.
Build American AI launched a super PAC, Building the Future, to support pro-AI state and federal candidates. The pro-AI group said it will focus on the issues not specific races.
The group cited Colorado and Georgia as two states that foster the best environments for data center development.
President Donald Trump said on Monday that the country should embrace data centers to foster economic growth.
“The only reason that communities throughout the U.S.A. should not want Data Centers is if they want to end up being backwards and poor. If they want to be successful and rich, with far lower taxes and jobs all over the place, let Data Reign,” the president wrote on Truth Social. “The good news is that there are plenty of other places that want them. If we kill the Golden Goose, you will only have yourselves to blame. China could not be happier with this anti Data Center movement. Actually, they can’t believe it is happening!”
Daniel Penny — the New Yorker found not guilty of criminally negligent homicide after choking out an unstable homeless man on a subway — made an impassioned defense of data centers in a Friday X post.
“I am telling you the data center is not the enemy. It is the forge. It trains the robots that will bring manufacturing home. It automates the office jobs we never should have manufactured in the first place, and starves the diploma mills that manufactured them,” Penny wrote. “It creates more demand for electricians, welders, and pipefitters than this country has seen in generations.”
One state that Build American AI will invest in, Ohio, may face headwinds as the group seeks to spread its pro-AI message.
The National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) in August warned that Americans’ dislike for data centers cost Republicans a key seat, which could limit future data center development.
Republican Ohio Senator John Husted and former Democratic Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown are locked in a “dead heat” in a state Trump carried by double digits in 2024. The NRSC admitted that the closeness of the race may be in part due to Brown’s anti-data center rhetoric.
“Data centers are the anchor hanging around Husted’s neck. If he loses and data centers get the blame, politicians across the country will take notice — and they will not go near the next one,” the Republican campaign group’s August memo stated.
Democratic Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro announced tougher strictures on building data centers in August.
“My message to data center developers is clear: if you can’t agree to our strict requirements and get the community where you want to build to say ‘yes,’ you’re not going to have the Commonwealth’s support either,” he said in an Aug. 18 statement. “These are some of the biggest companies in the world – they can afford to be good neighbors, follow the rules, and do this right.”
Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott issued a moratorium on data centers to ensure better reliability for its power grid.
“Our top priority is to protect Texans’ safety and quality of life. Any project that fails to comply with the requirements set forth by the PUCT and ERCOT, and by state law, must be denied connection to the Texas grid. Simply put, Texans must come first,” Abbott said in early August.
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