Cruz: AI Race Against China Is America's 'Single Most Important Economic Question'

Senator Ted Cruz, R-Texas, has warned that the United States' race against China for artificial intelligence dominance is fraught with coordinated propaganda and misinformation, particularly concerning debates around data centers. Cruz, who chairs the Senate Commerce Committee, asserts that much of the opposition to data centers is being manipulated by a well-funded campaign aiming to benefit China at America's expense.

"It's the same reason we saw Middle Eastern countries paying for anti-fracking movements," Cruz said in an interview with Fox News Digital. "Because if they can convince America, 'Don't develop your oil and gas, just buy it from us,' well, that's great for them and terrible for us. The same is true on data centers. If they can convince Americans, 'You don't want data centers here, you want to just rely on the Chinese for AI,' that's great for China, and it's terrible for America."

While direct Chinese government funding into U.S. data center policies has not been publicly revealed, OpenAI reported in June that it had banned ChatGPT accounts believed to have originated in China. These accounts were allegedly generating social media content that claimed data centers were increasing electricity costs for Americans. OpenAI stated that the banned accounts used its models in covert influence operations to manipulate the debate on American AI and broader tech policies.

Cruz described the effort to shape policy for the U.S. AI race as "the single most important economic question facing America today." He elaborated that a Chinese victory in AI would lead to the technology being used for espionage, propaganda, control, and surveillance, reflecting the values of the Chinese Communist Party. Conversely, he expressed a desire for American values such as free speech, individualism, free enterprise, and privacy to be reflected in AI if the U.S. prevails.

Cruz characterized opposition to AI advancement and data centers as the "dominant position on the Democratic side." He suggested this stance aligns with large industry players, including Anthropic, who he believes seek exemptions from antitrust laws and aim to collaborate with the government to control AI development.

He further associated this position with leftist ideology and the philosophical movement known as "effective altruism." Cruz contends that proponents of effective altruism are "hardcore leftists" who wish to leverage AI to advance their agenda. He also described it as a "money grab" driven by "rent-seeking," where large companies petition the government for benefits and preferential treatment to stifle competition.

Parker Thayer, an investigative researcher at the Capital Research Center, told Fox News Digital that effective altruism is linked to the "AI doomerism movement." Facebook co-founder and major Democratic donor Dustin Moskovitz, along with his wife Cari Tuna, are identified as leading financial backers of organizations associated with effective altruism. Their organization, Coefficient Giving (formerly Open Philanthropy), has committed significant funds to AI safety, security, and field-building, with plans to allocate over $1 billion to AI policy advocacy in 2026.

Coefficient Giving's stated interests include effective altruism, global catastrophic risks, biosecurity, and AI for epistemic improvement and forecasting. In 2015, the organization launched "Project Tailwind," an initiative to encourage founders to establish ambitious AI safety projects.