Build American AI, an advocacy group with ties to tech-connected billionaires, is launching a multimillion-dollar campaign to counter rising anti-data center sentiment in battleground states.
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The campaign will start in Kansas, Ohio and Wisconsin and will expand as state legislatures develop their 2027 agendas, according to a statement from Build American AI released Monday. The company pledged to support a bipartisan slate of candidates that are aligned with further data center development.
Build American AI is also establishing a super PAC called Building the Future for its political activities. The group said it is currently focused on issues and not specific candidates.
“Building the Future will support Republicans and Democrats who believe America can lead the world in AI while protecting families and empowering local communities,” the company said in an X post Monday morning.
Build American AI is backed by a super PAC supporting artificial intelligence and data centers called Leading the Future, which counts private equity firm Andreessen Horowitz, OpenAI co-founder Greg Brockman, Palantir co-founder Joe Lonsdale, SV Angel founder Ron Conway and AI software company Perplexity as supporters.
The 501(c)(4) nonprofit has roughly $50M on hand to pay for ads, grassroots engagement, research, earned media and public education, according to Axios.
The advocacy group said states like Colorado, Georgia and Texas were doing a good job of balancing data center development with community needs and acknowledged that communities “have legitimate questions about energy, water, land use, and costs” and “deserve honest answers.”
“We need moderate voices in the conversation to create and implement a transparent process with strong protections and real accountability,” the X post says.
Build American AI says its mission is to advance pro-innovation policies that build trust in technology while ensuring U.S. leadership in transformative technologies.
Leading the Future is itself working to elect pro-data center candidates. The group said it had $70M on hand at the end of 2025 and opposed Alex Bores, a New York Democrat who pushed for a law adopting controls around AI and was running for Congress, CNBC reported in January. Bores, an assemblymember, lost his primary in a narrow race.
The group also supported Republican congressional candidate Chris Gober, who won his primary in March.
Backlash against data center development has spilled over into local community meetings and statehouses over the past year, taking some in the industry by surprise. The sector is now playing catch-up in the public relations race, Milldam Public Relations co-founder Adam Waitkunas told Bisnow in April.
More than a dozen states and localities have considered or placed bans on data center construction, and the number of municipalities is rapidly growing as lawmakers face pressure from constituents.
In August, 61% of Americans opposed the construction of new data centers in their area, a 12-percentage-point jump from March, according to a poll from the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania.
Build American AI isn't the only group planning pro-data center programming. A group in Washington, D.C, is hosting a pro-data center party dubbed Data After Dark on Sept. 26. President Donald Trump has also voiced his support for data centers, posting on social media that communities that resist the facilities will end up "backwards and poor."
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