Build the Future or Surrender It to China: America’s Data Center Race

America is in a technological arms race, and whether Washington wants to admit it or not, data centers are becoming the factories of the twenty-first century.

For years, politicians have treated data centers like oversized warehouses that consume electricity and take up land. That thinking is dangerously outdated. Data centers are the infrastructure powering artificial intelligence, cloud computing, financial services, cybersecurity, advanced manufacturing, medical research, national defense and virtually every emerging technology that will define the global economy.

If America wants to lead, we need to build.

The economic benefits start long before a data center goes online. These projects require electricians, engineers, construction workers, equipment manufacturers, security professionals and skilled tradespeople. They generate enormous private investment, expand local tax bases and create demand for new power generation and infrastructure.

But the larger issue is national competitiveness.

China is not sitting around debating whether artificial intelligence infrastructure looks pretty enough for the neighborhood. Beijing understands that computing power is strategic power. China wants to dominate AI, advanced computing, robotics and the technologies that will drive the next generation of military and economic power.

America cannot allow that to happen.

President Trump has consistently understood something Washington bureaucrats too often forget: America wins when America builds. We should want the world's most advanced data centers located in Pennsylvania, New York, Texas, Virginia and across the United States, not pushed overseas because permitting takes forever or politicians surrender to activists opposed to virtually every major development project.

There are legitimate concerns. Data centers require tremendous amounts of electricity. Communities should demand responsible development, sufficient power generation and infrastructure investments that prevent residential customers from carrying unfair costs. But those challenges are arguments for smarter development, not stopping development.

We should be expanding natural gas, nuclear power and other reliable American energy sources alongside data center construction. Instead of asking whether America has enough electricity for the AI revolution, our answer should be simple: then let's produce more electricity.

This is bigger than another construction boom. The country controlling the infrastructure behind artificial intelligence will possess an extraordinary economic and strategic advantage.

I want that country to be the United States.

We cannot regulate, delay and protest ourselves into second place and then act surprised when China passes us. America became an economic superpower because generations before us built factories, highways, power plants, airports and telecommunications networks.

Our generation must build the infrastructure of the digital age.

Build the power. Build the data centers. Create the jobs. Attract the investment. Keep innovation in America.

And most importantly, keep China behind us.