US President Donald Trump warned Americans on Monday that they would end up "backwards and poor" unless they embraced the data centres being built in their communities.
In a post on Truth Social, he said the growing US public backlash to data centres poses an economic threat and could give China the upper hand in the AI race.
“The only reason that communities throughout the USA should not want data centres is if they want to end up being backwards and poor,” Mr Trump wrote.
“If they want to be successful and rich, with far lower taxes and jobs all over the place, let data reign.”
He said data centres were a "golden goose" and that China would exploit the growing anti-data centre movement.
The centres, which provide the computing power for the AI revolution, have emerged as a defining issue for many Americans before the crucial November midterm elections.
Concerns are growing over the noise they generate and the amount of water they consume, as well as AI's effects on jobs and rising energy costs. New York has enacted a moratorium on hyperscale data centres and Texas has an effective freeze on new development.
Other US states and cities are considering limits on data centres that would add more hurdles for an industry already struggling to secure power and equipment for the sprawling, energy-intensive sites.
Any construction delays would carry enormous implications for US tech companies, which plan to spend more than $700 billion on AI infrastructure this year, and the Wall Street investors backing them.
Opposition to data centres is also a growing political challenge for Mr Trump, who has put AI development at the heart of his economic agenda and pushed the rapid nationwide expansion of tech infrastructure as an engine of job creation.
He has also made preserving the US lead over China in AI a top priority for the administration.
Chinese President Xi Jinping is set to visit the White House next month.
The anti-data centre sentiment comes as Democrats press affordability issues in their bid to win back majorities in Congress in November. Progressive senator Bernie Sanders is among US officials calling for moratoriums on new data centres.
In the first three months of this year, at least 75 data centre projects were blocked or delayed by local objections, according to research group Data Centre Watch.
Opposition has been prevalent in political battleground states such as Michigan and Georgia, where 17 projects have been delayed or blocked, the data shows.
