Staff Reports
The new Ben Shapiro clip making the rounds hits a nerve because it connects three things Americans care about: our tech edge, foreign money, and local fights over giant data centers. Shapiro points to an April American Energy Institute report that says roughly $39 million from European billionaires and foundations flowed to U.S. groups fighting data‑center buildouts. If true, this isn’t just civic giving — it’s political muscle moving into the bones of our AI infrastructure at a crucial moment in the AI race with China.
What the AEI report actually says
The AEI report compiles public grant records and finds about $39M in foreign grants tied to a dozen U.S. groups opposing data‑center projects. It names backers like Hansjörg Wyss, Chris Hohn, Quadrature, KR Foundation and Oak Foundation. That money is legal in most cases, but AEI argues the scale and targeting deserve scrutiny. Fair enough — show the receipts and explain motives. Transparency matters, especially when the fight is over the physical hardware that powers AI.
Why data centers matter in the AI race with China
Data centers are not cute warehouses. They are the powerhouses that train and run large AI models. Slowing their construction slows compute capacity. Senator Bernie Sanders and Representative Alexandria Ocasio‑Cortez pushed a national moratorium — the Artificial Intelligence Data Center Moratorium Act — saying Congress should set guardrails before more centers go up. Tech leaders and startup backers called the move “knee‑jerk” and warned it could hand momentum to rivals overseas. That worry isn’t paranoia: China is racing hard in chips, models and deployment. We shouldn’t help them by stalling our own infrastructure.
Follow the money — and ask who benefits
Here’s the uncomfortable but simple point: when foreign foundations bankroll campaigns that make local votes and moratoria likelier, it changes who decides America’s tech future. Some foundations say they fund climate or community groups. Others insist they aren’t coordinating with any government. Still, whether it’s left‑wing dark money or generous foreign billionaires, the effect can be the same — fewer data centers, less U.S. capacity, more advantage for authoritarian competitors who don’t wring their hands over zoning or energy use. If you think that sounds conspiratorial, fine — but also ask why so many checks line up on the same side of a national strategic issue.
Build smart, regulate wisely, don’t hand the field to Beijing
We need two things at once: faster, smarter infrastructure buildout and better rules. Congress should demand transparency on foreign grant flows tied to political advocacy. Regulators should weigh local community concerns — water, energy, noise — without letting well‑funded activists dictate national strategy. And policymakers should avoid blanket moratoria that could send AI investment and jobs to countries that won’t ask permission to dominate the field. Ben Shapiro’s video may be loud, but the quiet lesson is simple: if we let our opponents slow us down from the inside, we’ll be outrun on the outside. That’s a fight worth waking up for.
