# The Anti-Data Center Movement Has Legitimate Roots. It May Also Have a Beijing Problem. **Source:** https://glitchwire.com/news/the-anti-data-center-movement-has-legitimate-roots-it-may-also-have-a-beijing-pr/ **Published:** 2026-05-30T12:29:43.356Z **Author:** AI Desk ยท Glitchwire **Categories:** AI, Policy ## Summary A growing wave of grassroots opposition to AI infrastructure is being joined by organizations whose funding traces back to Shanghai. The geopolitical stakes make the pattern worth scrutinizing. ## Article From suburban Maryland to rural Utah, residents are showing up to oppose data center construction. Their concerns are real: [rising electricity rates, enormous water consumption, noise, and the absence of meaningful job creation](https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2026/04/why-are-communities-pushing-back-against-data-centers/). A recent Pew poll found that public opposition is mounting as data centers blanket the country. But something else is happening alongside genuine community organizing. According to a recent report from the [Bitcoin Policy Institute](https://www.btcpolicy.org/articles/foreign-influence-in-the-campaign-against-american-ai), three distinct vectors of foreign influence have converged on the campaign against American AI infrastructure: Chinese state media outlets, a network of nonprofits funded by a Shanghai-based American billionaire, and dark money from foreign-tied charitable vehicles. ## The Singham Network At the center of the investigation is Neville Roy Singham, a U.S.-born tech tycoon who sold his consulting firm ThoughtWorks in 2017 and relocated to Shanghai. According to Fox News Digital, Singham has funneled approximately $285 million into a network of U.S.-based nonprofits since then. The New York Times reported in 2023 that Singham operates from a shared workspace with a Chinese Communist Party propaganda outfit and has funneled "enormous sums into a global network of nonprofits and media properties that consistently echo Beijing's foreign policy line." One of those organizations, the Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL), has become a visible force in the anti-data center movement. According to [The Dossier](https://www.dossier.today/p/the-shanghai-billionaire-behind-americas), PSL chapters have led or organized anti-data center protests in at least nine to ten distinct campaigns since late 2025, spanning Prince George's County, Maryland, to Tucson, Arizona. CodePink, another Singham-funded group, published an article in January 2026 directly targeting U.S. AI data centers while framing the fight as opposition to "the new Cold War on China." The House Oversight Committee has named PSL among organizations under examination in connection with Singham's network. Multiple congressional committees are investigating whether Singham has violated the Foreign Agents Registration Act. His wife, Jodie Evans, co-founded CodePink. ## The Asymmetry What makes this pattern worth scrutinizing is the stark asymmetry between what Beijing says to American audiences and what Beijing does at home. The BPI report notes that "while Beijing's state media warns American audiences that data centers are environmentally and economically dangerous, the Chinese state subsidizes up to half of the energy costs of its own AI data center operators." China's data center capacity is expected to reach 60 gigawatts by 2030, nearly double current levels. The movement has had tangible effects. According to [The Spectator](https://www.spectator.com/article/anti-data-center-activists-big-tech/), there have been more than 70 rejections or restrictions on data center projects in just the first four months of 2026, more than occurred in all of 2025. As of April 2026, 69 jurisdictions have active moratoriums in place. Senator Bernie Sanders and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez introduced the Artificial Intelligence Data Center Moratorium Act in March, which would halt construction of facilities requiring 20 megawatts or more. ## The Stakes This is where the geopolitical dimension becomes impossible to ignore. [The race for AI supremacy](/news/ibm-commits-10-billion-to-quantum-computing-targets-fault-tolerant-machine-by-20/) carries consequences that extend beyond market competition. A RAND Corporation analysis found that the first state to achieve artificial general intelligence "could plausibly reap significant first-mover advantages, including influence over standards, access to new markets, geopolitical strategic leverage, and military advantage." In one scenario RAND examined, early AGI breakthroughs "spur massive economic growth and generate compounding benefits for U.S. military capabilities, which allow the United States to build its geopolitical influence as the first mover." China's government has made AI dominance an explicit national priority. According to Brookings testimony from April 2026, American hyperscalers plan to spend $650 billion on AI infrastructure this year alone, compared to Chinese firms spending far less. That gap exists in large part because American data centers are scaling at unprecedented rates. Slowing those projects down, through moratoriums, zoning fights, and community pressure campaigns, has obvious strategic value to a geopolitical rival. ## The Complication None of this means that homeowners worried about substations in their backyard are foreign agents. Many concerns are entirely legitimate. A Harvard expert called data centers "a bad deal for communities on the local level." Some skeptics of the foreign influence narrative point out that dismissing American public opinion as CCP-funded is politically counterproductive. "Telling the hundreds of millions of Americans who are today anti-AI 'Your opinions were paid for by the CCP' is not a winning political message," American Enterprise Institute fellow Ryan Fedasiuk wrote on X. The Wyss Foundation, named in the BPI report, told Fox News Digital that "our grants to the organizations named were for completely unrelated issues. Any suggestion otherwise is false." CodePink's spokesperson called the allegations "false and defamatory." But the documented presence of Singham-linked organizers at protests across the country, the convergence of their messaging with Beijing's foreign policy positions on [Taiwan, export controls, and AI competition](/news/taiwan-detains-three-in-first-crackdown-on-nvidia-chip-smuggling-to-china/), and the ongoing congressional investigations all warrant attention. At minimum, policymakers should ensure that domestic debates about AI infrastructure are not being shaped by geopolitical adversaries whose interests lie in slowing America's buildout while accelerating their own. The discussion about AI safety, as BPI's Sam Lyman put it, "should not be influenced by geopolitical rivals, especially China, which aims to accelerate AI development to gain the initiative in global science and technology competition." Whether individual data center projects make sense for individual communities is a question worth asking. Whether the loudest voices in that debate have undisclosed foreign ties is also worth asking. --- **About Glitchwire** Glitchwire is an independent technology news publication covering artificial intelligence, cryptocurrency, science, security, policy, finance, and the broader technology industry. 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