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Two of the most powerful Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives are raising an alarm: they say Chinese money may be quietly flowing into American nonprofit groups that campaign against new AI data centers. The claim comes just as President Donald Trump prepares to welcome Chinese leader Xi Jinping to the White House this week, with artificial intelligence high on the agenda.

House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith and House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party Chairman John Moolenaar sent a letter to the Treasury Department and the IRS this week. They want officials to determine whether foreign money has been funneled through America's charitable tax system to block the data centers the country needs to compete with China in AI.

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A Tycoon's Money Trail

At the center of the lawmakers' concern is Neville Roy Singham, an American-born tech millionaire who now lives in Shanghai. Investigative reporting has traced hundreds of millions of dollars from Singham into a network of U.S. nonprofits, some of which have become leading voices in the fight against data center construction.

Two of the groups named, the Party for Socialism and Liberation and the ANSWER Coalition, describe themselves openly as pro-China and communist. Earlier this month, activists from both organizations protested in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, combining criticism of Trump with support for Cuba's communist government and opposition to AI data centers.

Smith and Moolenaar argue this is no accident. "Under no circumstances can we allow an adversary... to weaponize our own tax code and harm an emerging American industry," they wrote in their letter. They want to know whether tax-exempt groups linked to the network broke the law by acting for the benefit of foreign interests rather than genuine charity.

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AI Chatbots Used to Stir Anger, OpenAI Finds

The lawmakers' suspicions are not coming out of nowhere. Independent of the congressional letter, OpenAI published its own threat report earlier this year identifying two clusters of ChatGPT accounts it believes originated in China and were used for covert influence campaigns targeting U.S. tech policy debates, according to reporting from Axios and Cyberscoop.

One operation, which OpenAI nicknamed "Data Center Bandwagon," generated social media comments and cartoon-style images falsely claiming that data centers were the main reason electricity bills were rising for ordinary families. The accounts posed as everyday Americans on platforms like X and YouTube while actually operating through VPNs and prompting the chatbot in Chinese.

OpenAI's own investigators were careful to note the limits of what they found. "This was not a case of an influence operation creating a debate," Ben Nimmo, the company's principal investigator on intelligence and investigations, told reporters, according to Axios. "The debate existed already. This was an influence operation from China trying to interfere in it." OpenAI said the campaign gained little real traction online.

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Real Concerns, Real Exploitation

It is worth being clear: opposition to data centers in the United States is not invented out of thin air. Many communities genuinely worry about rising electricity prices and heavy water use tied to the massive server farms needed to power AI systems. Smith himself acknowledged this directly.

"Americans have legitimate concerns about data centers," Smith said, according to Fox News Digital, pointing to their effect on electricity costs and water usage. But he argued that foreign-backed organizations should not be allowed to hijack those legitimate worries to slow down American technology.

"The Chinese want to stall and slow down the advancement of AI in the United States because they want to win the AI war," Smith said. He added a pointed reminder about America's nonprofit system: "Tax exempt is a privilege. It is not a right."

A report from the Bitcoin Policy Institute, cited by the lawmakers, found that the Party for Socialism and Liberation alone ran 21 anti-data center campaigns across 14 states. Those campaigns were linked to ten local moratoriums, one permanent ban, and four scrapped projects worth nearly $23.7 billion in potential investment.

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A Wider Pattern of Chinese Influence

Moolenaar has framed the issue as part of a much larger Chinese Communist Party strategy known as "United Front" work, which uses community groups, media outlets and online networks to shape political debates in the United States from the inside.

"Groups that portray themselves as grassroots are really more AstroTurf — very fake — being funded by entities that are working in partnership with the Chinese Communist Party," Moolenaar said, according to Fox News Digital. He argued that Beijing exploits the openness of American society specifically because authoritarian China does not allow the same freedoms at home.

This is not the first time Smith's committee has gone after organizations in the Singham network. The Ways and Means Committee has previously issued subpoenas to three connected groups — BreakThrough News, Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research and The People's Forum — after they allegedly refused to hand over financial records requested during an earlier investigation.

Moolenaar was careful to draw a distinction between fair criticism of Beijing and demonizing ordinary trade ties. "They are a trading partner, which is true, and we need to have a relationship with them," he said. "But at the same time, we do not want to be manipulated, we do not want to become more dependent, and we certainly do not want to be under their thumb."

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What Comes Next

The timing of the letter is no coincidence. Xi Jinping is scheduled to arrive in Washington this week for a state visit, with artificial intelligence expected to be a central topic of his talks with President Trump. The administration has repeatedly stressed that the United States intends to maintain its lead over China in the AI race.

Smith and Moolenaar are now waiting to see whether Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and IRS chief Frank Bisignano will act on their request. For now, the lawmakers say the core issue is transparency: Americans deserve to know who is really funding the voices shaping the debate over their own country's technological future.

"The American people deserve to know which actors adversarial to the United States are trying to undermine these decision-making processes," Smith and Moolenaar wrote.

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Sources

1. Fox News Digital – "China 'throwing gasoline on the fire' in AI data centers race, say lawmakers" – https://www.foxnews.com/politics/china-throwing-gasoline-fire-ai-data-centers-race-say-lawmakers
2. Axios – "China-linked operatives used ChatGPT to influence data centers debate: OpenAI" – https://axios.com/2026/06/10/openai-china-ai-data-center-tariffs-chatgpt
3. CyberScoop – "OpenAI: 'Likely' Chinese influence operation tried to use ChatGPT to stir debate on data centers" – https://cyberscoop.com/openai-china-influence-campaign-chatgpt/
4. House Committee on Ways and Means (official government source) – "Chairman Smith: Trump Administration Investigation into Shanghai Singham Network Aligns with Committee Oversight of U.S. Nonprofit Sector" – https://waysandmeans.house.gov/2026/06/30/chairman-smith-trump-administration-investigation-into-shanghai-singham-network-aligns-with-committee-oversight-of-u-s-nonprofit-sector/

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