Lawmakers Push DOJ to Investigate Alleged China-Linked Campaign Against US Data Centers

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A Letter to the Attorney General

Rep. Lance Gooden, R-Texas, has led a group of House Republicans in sending a letter to Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche. The letter asks the Department of Justice (DOJ) to investigate whether foreign organizations are covertly working to block new data centers being built across the country.

Data centers are large facilities packed with computer servers. They provide the processing power needed to run artificial intelligence (AI) systems like chatbots and image generators. As AI use has grown, so has the need for these facilities, along with local pushback over their cost to electricity grids and natural resources.

Gooden is not alone in raising the issue. Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Arkansas, sent a similar letter to Blanche in June, arguing that a foreign-backed network — led by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) — has funneled more than $2 billion into U.S. advocacy groups fighting data center construction. Separately, senior Republicans on the House Energy and Commerce Committee wrote to the FBI and the White House's science advisory council raising the same concerns.

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What the Letters Allege

The lawmakers' letters lean heavily on two outside reports: one from the artificial intelligence company OpenAI, and another from the Bitcoin Policy Institute, a research group focused on digital currency and technology policy.

OpenAI described two clusters of ChatGPT accounts likely originating from China that the company banned after they used its models in an apparent covert influence operation aimed at shaping the American debate over AI and technology policy. One of these campaigns, which OpenAI internally called "Data Center Bandwagon," generated social media posts and images falsely tying data center construction to rising household electricity bills.

According to reporting on the OpenAI findings, the operation involved accounts accessing ChatGPT through VPNs from China and posing as ordinary Americans of different backgrounds on social media. However, the company was clear that the campaign's real-world reach was limited — OpenAI found no evidence that the operation had a "meaningful" influence on the debate, even though it had sought to exploit and amplify existing public concerns.

The Bitcoin Policy Institute's research, cited in the lawmakers' letter, focuses on the Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL), a small U.S. political organization that has organized local opposition to data centers in more than a dozen states.

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The Singham Connection

Much of the lawmakers' concern centers on Neville Roy Singham, an American businessman who sold his software company, Thoughtworks, for hundreds of millions of dollars in 2017 and has lived in Shanghai since. Singham has for years funded a network of left-wing nonprofits and activist groups in the United States, and critics have long argued that some of these groups serve as informal allies of Beijing's messaging goals.

That scrutiny escalated recently. According to CBS News, Singham is under criminal investigation by a federal grand jury in the Southern District of New York, an inquiry that began by examining possible violations of the Foreign Agents Registration Act and has since expanded into a criminal tax probe over whether money was unlawfully moved through nonprofits he controls. Just the News reported that Attorney General Blanche personally authorized the grand jury to issue subpoenas, and that the investigation was launched by the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York.

Singham has not been charged with any crime, and he has not publicly responded to the reporting on the investigation.

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A Contested Debate

The lawmakers' claims arrive at a moment when data center construction has become genuinely controversial on its own terms, independent of any foreign involvement. Local residents in many states have raised legitimate concerns about strain on power grids and rising utility bills tied to the AI boom, and some of these worries are documented by independent market monitors, not driven by any influence campaign.

That reality complicates the picture lawmakers are painting. OpenAI itself acknowledged that the concerns Chinese-linked accounts sought to exploit were already "reasonable" and "sincerely held" by many Americans on both sides of the argument. The company's own investigator noted that the debate over data centers existed well before any foreign interference was detected, and that the campaign did not appear to have shifted public opinion in any measurable way.

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What Comes Next

It remains unclear whether the Justice Department will act on the lawmakers' request. As of now, there is no public confirmation that the DOJ has opened a formal investigation specifically into foreign influence on the data center debate, separate from the ongoing Singham grand jury probe.

The broader question — how much of the opposition to data centers is organic, and how much may be shaped by outside actors — is likely to remain a live political issue as AI infrastructure spending continues to expand across the country.

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Sources

1. OpenAI, "PRC-linked influence operations are targeting AI debates in the US" — https://openai.com/index/prc-linked-influence-operations-ai-debates/
2. Al Jazeera, "OpenAI says China-based actors stoking opposition to AI data centres" — https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2026/6/11/openai-says-china-based-actors-stoking-opposition-to-ai-data-centres
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. CBS News, "Husband of Code Pink founder being investigated under federal foreign agent and tax laws" — https://www.cbsnews.com/news/husband-code-pink-founder-neville-roy-singham-investigation-tax-laws/
5. Just the News, "Federal grand jury subpoenas target left-wing megadonor's nonprofit network in New York" — https://justthenews.com/nation/states/grand-jury-subpoenas-target-left-wing-megadonors-nonprofit-network-new-york
6. Office of Sen. Tom Cotton, "Cotton to DOJ: Investigate Communist China Influence on Data Center Development" — https://www.cotton.senate.gov/news/press-releases/cotton-to-doj-investigate-communist-china-influence-on-data-center-development
7. The Hill, "China likely behind anti-data center campaign in US: OpenAI" — https://thehill.com/policy/technology/5920573-openai-chinese-influence-operators/

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