Texas Gov. Greg Abbott isn’t buying the Chinese psy-op theory.
In a Fox News interview on Friday, the Texas governor pushed back against the notion that China is influencing the data center debate in the United States.
“I haven’t done it because of anything said by China, I’ve done it by listening to and working with constituents and seeing real problems they’re facing in their communities,” Abbott said of his recent moratorium on data center construction in Texas.
“None of that has anything to do with China,” he added.
X said on Thursday that it uncovered a 200,000-strong Chinese bot farm and that a couple hundred of those accounts posted disparaging content about data centers “in a manner that could manipulate a legitimate debate about American AI and energy policy.”
The disclosure prompted a fresh wave of I-told-you-sos from the members of the tech industry, who say vast numbers of Americans are being duped by cheap, AI-produced Chinese propaganda, and that anti-data-center sentiment in the United States was, as a result, illegitimate.
What X didn’t disclose, said Darren Linvill, a researcher at Clemson University, is that many of those bots had zero engagement and were likely quickly deactivated by X before they could garner a following.
On Fox News on Friday, host Will Cain raised X’s disclosure and asked Abbott whether “real concerns” about data centers in the United States were “being driven by China.”
Abbott said that China is certainly attempting to influence data center sentiment, but added that his recent pivot against the compute factories was the result of legitimate concerns raised by Texans in communities where they’re being built.
“We know what the power demand was going to be for the state of Texas, which was five times the current ability to provide power,” Abbot said.
Once a staunch supporter of data center construction in Texas, Abbott has recently pivoted.
Abbott introduced new standards for AI data center projects in Texas, including directing the state’s utility commission and grid operator to protect residents from associated infrastructure costs. He also suggested a ban on data center development in rural Texas and said that projects must undergo an audit before moving forward.
Abbott said earlier this month that his administration had halted some 1,800 AI data center projects in the state.
AI data centers are an existential issue for AI companies like OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Meta, and Microsoft, which rely on them to power their products.
All across the country, however, Americans are rallying to fight against AI data centers, which can cost billions to build and span hundreds of acres. Many are concerned about how the sprawling facilities will affect the environment, utility prices, water resources, and noise levels. Some just don’t like AI.
The effectiveness of any Chinese campaign, which has been pushed by right-wing commentators, tech bros, and Shark Tank investor Kevin O’Leary, who is developing a data center in Utah, was disputed by several researchers who study misinformation campaigns.
Samuel Woolley, a researcher at the University of Pittsburgh, said the only reports he’s seen about Chinese AI data center propaganda have come directly from Big Tech companies, which he said have a “vested interest” in data center development in the United States. X is owned by Elon Musk, whose companies need AI data centers to survive.
“We have to take research that’s potentially political with a pinch of salt,” he said.
