GoKawiilExecutive Summary
This is a report about artificial intelligence and data centers and China-linked efforts to block the American buildout of both.
Data centers are a flashpoint in US politics. Americans have genuine concerns about how data centers may affect their electricity prices or strain local water resources. These concerns are authentic and need to be heard. As such, it is necessary to be clear from the start: the purpose of this report is not to cast doubt on the earnestness or even the veracity of claims made by Americans who oppose data centers. Indeed, most of the mobilizing taking place across the country is, on its surface, normal civic life in America functioning as it was designed to. Concerned citizens are organizing and affecting the political process.
But running parallel to this domestic, democratic movement is a foreign influence campaign that has worked to amplify public division and opposition to American AI infrastructure. At the center of this network is a Shanghai-based Marxist,1 one of the largest private funders of left-wing political organizing, and the subject of multiple congressional inquiries with documented ties to the Chinese Communist Party: Neville Roy Singham.
Singham is not solely responsible for the recent domestic backlash to data centers, but his network has worked to amplify it.
While Part I of our investigation, Foreign influence in the Campaign against American AI, traced the macro discourse and dollars shaping public policy and opinions on AI, Part II follows feet on the pavement: the rallies, petitions, packed council chambers, and town-by-town campaigns that have stalled the buildout of American AI infrastructure. At the heart of many of these campaigns is the Singham network.
Deeply enmeshed in these local fights is the Party for Socialism and Liberation, a Marxist-Leninist group with documented foreign ties whose stated mission is to dismantle American capitalism2 and whose leadership is drawn directly from the executives of Singham's nonprofits. The same people who have managed Singham organizations like The People's Forum, the ANSWER Coalition, BreakThrough News, and the Justice and Education Fund sit on the PSL's central committee and at the top of its presidential ticket. Under their leadership, the Party for Socialism and Liberation (or PSL) has convened hundreds of activists to push for permanent bans on data center projects throughout the country.
To put the PSL’s impact in material terms, it has been a critical mobilizer in efforts that delayed, scaled back, or blocked approximately $23.6 billion in proposed AI-infrastructure investment, in roles ranging from lead organizer to one member of a broader coalition. This report tracks 21 separate PSL campaigns across 14 states that have contributed to 10 data center moratoria, 1 permanent data center ban, and 4 rejected or scrapped data center projects.
Perhaps most concerning, the public cannot view the PSL’s fundraising apparatus or see who is financing this nationwide mobilization effort. Due to a gap in US election laws, the PSL’s finances are exempt from public reporting. So whether China or any other foreign actor is financing the PSL cannot be readily answered by the existing public record.
This report documents the ground game of the Singham network city by city and explains why the nationwide campaign of a Singham-linked activist group to ban data centers deserves the attention of the American people, Congress, and the White House. Across 18 separate case studies, this report presents evidence from open-source media that allows readers to decide for themselves the significance of the PSL’s role in each of these campaigns, whether it was determinative or simply contributory. Our position is that the influence of the PSL’s role in each case study is important to understand. But far more important is grasping the threat of China putting its thumb on the scale of the AI discourse in any capacity.
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