Kevin O'Leary claims Chinese propaganda is to blame for anti-datacenter sentiment, 'hundreds of millions of dollars' being spent to kill US dominance in AI

Entrepreneur Kevin O'Leary has claimed that Chinese propaganda is behind the growing anti-datacenter sentiment in the U.S., alleging that hundreds of millions of dollars are being spent to undermine A... Read original →

While O’Leary’s claims lack evidence, they reveal the geopolitical weaponization of AI infrastructure. Technically, local U.S. opposition could delay deployment of sub-3nm chips (e.g., NVIDIA Blackwell), reducing EUV tool utilization and stalling automation integration. Regulatory risks are rising: states may impose energy/water-based permitting hurdles, inflating hidden costs for TSMC’s Arizona fab and forcing supply chain over-engineering. Strategically, firms from Taiwan, China will likely accelerate Southeast Asian diversification, while NVIDIA doubles down on liquid-cooled, power-efficient architectures to pass scrutiny. Over the next 12–24 months, Washington may enact federal data center licensing—not just for sustainability, but to fortify its AI dominance. Yet politicizing public opinion risks fragmenting the global hardware ecosystem and slowing America’s own innovation velocity.