Sen Tom Cotton urges DOJ to probe Chinese bid to 'kneecap' American AI
Sen. Tom Cotton urged the Justice Department to investigate a covert campaign linked to China designed to "kneecap" America's rapidly expanding artificial intelligence infrastructure in a letter obtained exclusively by Fox News Digital.
In the letter to Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, the Arkansas Republican calls for federal investigators to examine whether foreign actors are attempting to shape U.S. public opinion and policy against data centers and AI development as Washington and Beijing compete for dominance in artificial intelligence.
"Recent reports show that Communist China is attempting to influence our policy and public opinion on data centers. The reason is obvious: they want to kneecap our processing power to win the AI race," Cotton told Fox News Digital.
"Americans should decide their own future free of communist propaganda. I'm encouraging the Department of Justice to investigate," Cotton said.
Cotton's request follows the release of a report last week from the Bitcoin Policy Institute, a think tank based in Washington, D.C., alleging that Chinese state media, foreign-funded advocacy groups and a network of organizations funded by American tech tycoon Neville Roy Singham have spent years building opposition to U.S. data center construction and AI infrastructure projects.
Singham, an avowed Marxist and the founder of a Chicago-based company, Thoughtworks, that he sold in 2017, now lives in Shanghai, and has become a growing focus of congressional scrutiny and federal investigations. In March, as members of the Singham network were journeying to Havana to support the Communist Party of Cuba, Earlier this year, Fox News Digital published a five-part series documenting how Singham has funneled $278 million into a series of nonprofits, including groups at the heart of the protests against AI, data centers and technology firms in the U.S.
As Fox News Digital has reported, 501(c)(3) nonprofits from the Singham network, including CodePink, the People's Forum, Tricontinental and BreakThrough News, have participated and led campaigns opposing AI development, semiconductor export controls and large-scale data center projects. Singham, a self-avowed communist, started pumping the money into the groups after his 2017 marriage to Jodie Evans, the co-founder of CodePink.
For years, groups funded by Singham have worked closely with two self-described communist groups in the U.S. — the ANSWER Coalition and the Party for Socialism and Liberation — that have organized foot soldiers to protest major U.S. technology, defense and logistics companies, such as Palantir Technologies, Lockheed-Martin and Google, to try to name-and-shame the firms for doing business with the U.S. government on issues from immigration to global geopolitics where China has major interests, including in Israel, Iran, Venezuela, Cuba, South Korea and even Greenland.
Pro-China protestors have seized on high electrical costs associated with operating a data center. One of the key themes of new protests is the rising electricity bills that consumers have been seeing in recent months. Earlier this year, Cotton introduced a bill, called the "DATA Act of 2026," that would lift regulatory controls to allow manufacturers, data centers and other energy-intensive industries to build new electricity systems separate from the consumer electrical grid.
More widely, Senate and House lawmakers have launched inquiries into the nonprofits in the Singham network, while questioning whether the groups should be required to register as "foreign agents" under the Foreign Agents Registration Act, called FARA, which demands that entities or individuals working for the interests of foreign interests register with the U.S. Justice Department as foreign lobbyists.
"Alarming reports indicate that a network of foreign actors, led by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), is attempting to manipulate U.S. policy and public opinion on data centers," Cotton wrote in the letter.
AGITATORS UNITED BY CHINESE MONEY, HATE FOR AMERICA TARGET DATA CENTERS, EXPERTS WARN
Climate activists, anti-Israel protesters and other activist movements with very different agendas have become strange bedfellows united by a shared disdain for America and funding from China, according to experts who warn the trend is weakening the United States amid a rapidly accelerating AI race. They are seen as part of a "red-green-green alliance," an ideological overlap between three elements: communist movements, characterized by the color red; Islamist activism, described as green; and environmental protest groups, symbolized as green.
Cotton argued that America's position in artificial intelligence will have sweeping implications for the country's economic strength, military capabilities, diplomatic influence and national security. He warned that foreign adversaries shouldn't be allowed to exploit public concerns over energy use, utility costs and water consumption to slow U.S. technological development.
The Bitcoin Policy Institute report, "Foreign Influence in the Campaign Against American AI," alleges that three separate streams of influence — Chinese state media, the Singham network and foreign-funded advocacy organizations — have increasingly aligned around efforts to block or delay new AI-related infrastructure in the United States.
LAWMAKERS RAISE ALARM OVER NEVILLE ROY SINGHAM'S $278M NETWORK SPREADING CCP PROPAGANDA IN THE U.S.
After their wedding in early 2017, Singham and Evans have transformed far-left protests in the United States, creating a machine that sounds the alarm for new protests from clear command-and-control centers within the Singham network, churns out pre-printed protest signs, shares common messaging and galvanizes around common themes that support China and condemn "AmeriKKKa," as an "imperiaist nation," borrowing on Russian and Chinese propaganda.
According to the report by the Bitcoin Policy Institute, the Singham network "has spent nearly five years producing parallel domestic content opposing U.S. AI infrastructure, AI labs, and AI export controls."
The report argues that the campaign against American AI infrastructure creates a strategic advantage for Beijing at a time when China is aggressively investing in its own AI capabilities.
"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," the report states.
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The issue has become increasingly prominent as policymakers, investors and technology leaders warn that the U.S. risks falling behind China if it fails to rapidly expand the computing infrastructure needed to power next-generation AI systems.
One of the most vocal advocates for expanded AI infrastructure has been billionaire investor Kevin O'Leary, who has argued that data centers, power generation and advanced computing capacity are now strategic assets in the global competition for artificial intelligence leadership.
The broader concern raised by Cotton, O'Leary, the Bitcoin Policy Institute and others is that pro-China campaigns opposing U.S. AI infrastructure are advancing narratives that ultimately benefit Beijing as the U.S. States and China battle for technological and economic supremacy.
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Earlier this year, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Rep. Alexandrio Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), both leaders in the Democratic Socialists of America, organized an event on the "existential threat of AI." The event featured speakers closely affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party, including Zeng Yi of the Beijing Institute of AI Safety and Governance and Xue Lan, a counselor to China's State Council and chairman of China's national AI governance committee. Sanders, Ocasio-Cortez, Yi and Lan didn't respond to requests for comment.
Cotton noted in his letter that Lan is affiliated with Tsinghua University, an institution frequently scrutinized by U.S. officials because of its role in China's military-civil fusion strategy.
As reported, last fall, during a conference of the "Global South Academic Forum," which Fox News Digital first reported, Singham publicly praised the Chinese Communist Party and Chinese President Xi Jinping's global campaign for a "new world order."