House Speaker Mike Johnson has dismissed growing opposition to artificial intelligence data centers as a Chinese influence operation, even as polling shows substantial resistance to new facilities across both parties. Speaking Monday, Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, said opposition to AI data centers amounts to a "Chinese psyop," arguing that Washington should resist imposing a moratorium or broad new regulations on the industry because doing so could allow China to pull ahead in the global AI race. He has stated that the tech industry should be able to regulate itself.
"We do not need a moratorium. We do not need to jump in and hyper regulate this because we'll lose the race to China," Johnson said. "The innovation is important to continue." "That is a Chinese psyop.
That's not a conspiracy theory," Johnson said. His remarks come just days after President Donald Trump hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping at the White House for a lavish state visit, complete with a military arrival ceremony, state dinner, flyover and other formal displays of diplomatic hospitality. But while the White House is embracing AI at full throttle, voters appear considerably less enthusiastic.
Recent polling shows significant opposition to new data centers across both parties and among urban, suburban and rural voters alike, with Americans raising concerns about the pace of AI development and the lack of adequate safeguards. That growing unease comes as the technology industry itself moves to strengthen AI guardrails. Nvidia has unveiled its Open Agent Safety Platform, designed to place tighter controls on autonomous AI systems.
The company says the platform can quarantine AI agents that attempt to escape their designated boundaries within "milliseconds." Elon Musk-owned social media platform X has claimed it found evidence that Chinese-linked accounts have attempted to influence the American debate over AI infrastructure. In August, X said its safety team had identified a suspected Chinese bot farm containing approximately 200,000 accounts. About 200 of those accounts were posting material that could manipulate the U.S. debate over AI and energy policy, including claims that data centers were driving electricity prices higher and straining the power grid, X stated.
That finding provides some basis for Johnson's broader concern about foreign influence. But it does not demonstrate that Americans who oppose data centers are being manipulated by China. Johnson's comments on Monday put him at odds with a growing number of Republicans who have raised concerns about the industry's rapid expansion, including its impact on electricity costs, the power grid and local communities.
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