As President Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping prepare to meet later this month, much of the attention will center on trade, tariffs and security. Behind those issues lies a larger competition that will determine the economic and military balance of power for decades to come: leadership in artificial intelligence (AI). 

While Beijing remains the top threat to American leadership in AI, an equally concerning wave of state and local data center bans is undercutting the infrastructure American AI and our digital lives require. These measures, while well-intentioned and based on real concerns that require a serious response, threaten our national security.

In fact, more than 300 communities across 44 states have adopted moratoriums or bans on data centers, including one in five counties in Georgia. In July, New York became the first state to halt permits for large facilities. Texas has paused new grid connections while regulators audit the backlog. State legislatures have filed nearly 2,000 bills regulating AI. 

Meanwhile, China has made its intentions clear. Beijing’s new five-year plan sets a $1.4 trillion target for its AI industry and is preparing to double its national data center capacity by 2030. 

From our experiences on the Senate Intelligence and Budget Committees, we saw firsthand how our adversaries use technology to plot against us and how innovation drives our economy.  

Between us, we spent four decades in the Senate, a Georgia Republican and a North Dakota Democrat, and we disagreed on plenty. But we agree on this: outright bans on data centers pose an existential threat to American competitiveness and national security. A ban here does not stop AI from being built. It just means that communities will forfeit thousands of construction jobs, millions in tax revenue, and the economic growth a data center brings. 

To be sure, the communities enacting these restrictions have honest concerns about water usage, electricity consumption and siting issues associated with new data centers. Those anxieties are understandable and deserve straight answers and assurances from developers. 

But the good news is that the facilities being built today are increasingly environmentally efficient and effective job creators. For example, newer data centers employ closed-loop recycled water systems, which cut freshwater use by up to 70 percent. Microsoft’s latest data centers use the same amount of water annually as a single restaurant.  

The same principle applies to power. Initiatives like the Ratepayer Protection Pledge ensure that tech and data center developers, not residents, bear the burden of extra energy costs from data center infrastructure.

The fears that AI will destroy employment opportunities overlook the massive blue-collar boom these facilities generate. Don Slaiman from the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) wrote in the New York Times that data center work will double union hours, and The Economist found that data center construction has helped create hundreds of thousands of new jobs since 2023, with many installation and maintenance positions paying roughly 40 percent more than comparable work elsewhere.

Additionally, Meta’s $115 million investment in its Workforce Academy is helping train the workforce of the future. In Indianapolis, Baton Rouge, Houston and Columbus, alumni who entered the program with no previous experience are now working on critical job sites. Now, Lowe’s, Nvidia, Bank of America and more are teaming up to train 1 million plumbers, electricians and other skilled trade workers over the next decade. 

These investments are revitalizing the American workforce in communities that haven’t seen this kind of investment in decades.  

But private companies cannot overcome public policy barriers. Training workers can only create jobs if there are projects to put those skills to use. 

It’s time for all levels of government to work with the private sector instead of proposing bans on data centers.

• To start, Congress should codify a unified national AI framework into law to prevent a patchwork of 50 conflicting state rules. 
• Next, federal and state agencies must fast-track the grid upgrades and data center permits that allow our new workforce to build the digital backbone of the future.
• Finally, all levels of government must prioritize grid modernization. This includes onshoring turbine and transformer production, securing the grid from physical and cyber threats, streamlining permitting and expanding transmission capacity to build the AI infrastructure necessary to maintain American leadership.

Winning the AI race will strengthen America’s economy, national security and technological independence for decades. We cannot let misguided anti-data center panic surrender our advantage.  

Kent Conrad represented North Dakota in the Senate from 1987 to 2013 as a Democrat. Saxby Chambliss represented Georgia in the Senate from 2003 to 2015 as a Republican. Both serve as advisers to the American Edge Project, which is supported by Meta and other domestic tech organizations.