“Now is the time to strengthen American innovation,” Build American AI says on its website. “Our mission is to advance pro-innovation policies that build trust in technology, boost America’s competitiveness, and ensure U.S. leadership in the transformative technologies of tomorrow.”
Build American AI is connected to Leading the Future, a super PAC that launched with more than $50 million in funding. Leading the Future has supported candidates aligned with its AI agenda and opposed candidates seen as hostile to the technology. Build American AI also plans to establish a separate super PAC called Building the Future. That group is expected to support candidates in federal and state races who favor its policy priorities and oppose those who do not. The initial campaign, however, is focused more broadly on policy debates rather than individual races.
Kansas, Ohio, and Wisconsin are the first states targeted for the data center push. Concerns over electricity demand, water use, and utility costs have become more prominent as communities weigh proposals for large-scale computing facilities.
The group points to Colorado, Georgia, and Texas as examples of approaches it considers favorable to data center development. Colorado Gov. Jared Polis has generally supported the sector, Georgia provides tax exemptions, and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has promoted requiring companies to cover the resources they consume.
Build American AI’s broader policy agenda includes five areas. It supports federal rules intended to protect children from harmful or manipulative online content, along with national AI safety standards developed with industry participation and designed to avoid excessive compliance burdens.
The organization is also calling for expanded AI education and workforce programs, including AI literacy initiatives and industry-specific training and certification.
Its infrastructure proposal includes creating a large computing hub on federal land. Under the group’s plan, companies would fund the required infrastructure and energy so local households and small businesses would not bear higher utility costs.
The campaign arrives as data centers become a more visible political issue. Communities in several parts of the country have raised concerns about their electricity and water requirements, prompting politicians from both parties to take positions on how and where the facilities should be built. OpenAI itself has sought to distance the company from Leading the Future despite Brockman’s financial support for the group. In June, OpenAI said it does not control Leading the Future or have insight into its operations. “There have been questions around Leading the Future (LTF), which has received support from our President and co-founder, Greg Brockman, and his wife Anna,” OpenAI wrote. “OpenAI does not direct the activities of LTF, or have visibility into their operations.”
OpenAI also criticized political advocacy tactics that obscure who is behind a campaign, saying groups working on AI policy should clearly disclose their positions and representation.
Build American AI’s launch extends the political push around AI infrastructure beyond individual candidates and into local debates over the physical footprint required to support the technology. Its first test will be whether voters in Kansas, Ohio, and Wisconsin are receptive to arguments for more data center construction as concerns over energy and resource use continue to shape the discussion.
This analysis is based on reporting from Inc..
Image courtesy of NCS.
This article was generated with AI assistance and reviewed for accuracy and quality.
