Posted on 09/15/2026 2:47:01 PM PDT by Tench_Coxe
Speaking at an event titled "Harnessing American Power" last month, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum expressed dismay at what he saw as a new wave of local opposition to data centers in America.
What's more, he claimed, not everything was as it seemed.
"It's not organic and local, some of this is foreign-sourced dark money," he told the crowd.
He isn't alone in his suspicions. Over on the podcast All-In, which is hosted by a group of tech multimillionaires who call each other "besties," there was also talk of foreign influence, specifically from China.
(Excerpt) Read more at npr.org ...
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A simple question. If this is all true (among other things), why are companies in the US still allowed to do business with China, and why are we not regarding it as a hostile power?
I know there are nuances between the CCP and larger China, but then again, 1940s Germany had its White Rose Society.
I have my own thoughts on why, mainly along the lines of Orwell: 'Oceania has always been at war with Eastasia'.
NPR has sleuthed out another ganglion of the Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy. The eye of NPR never ceases in its efforts to expose the machinations of those Wascally Weepublicans
It is *very* easy to believe that Red China is funding the opposition here. In fact I'd be willing to bet that they are...and that Rat Party Headquarters is getting a cut.
There’s a great local talk show host in Boston who refers to NPR as “National Panhandler Radio”.
Of course!!!
It blows my mind that people in Utah didn’t want a data center the size of manhattan located in their drought ridden state.
How much water does a data center use?
That’s good! I like “National Public Restroom,” which I thought of myself, long ago. Kind of dumb, I admit.
Theory? I guess if you also call gravity a theory.
Mr wonderful floated this stupid idea when the public started fighting his gigantic monstrosity in Utah. I just knew it was gonna catch on with all the soft heads!!
The 2 women he accused of taking Chinese money to try to kill his data centers were just 2 regular women who didn’t want the center in utah. It was PATHETIC!!
There are benefits of AI and there are also things to be concerned about, for instance how it will cost American jobs..much easier to just use AI than hire someone 20+ bucks an hour to do the same thing..and NO, AI robots are NOT going to kill people please..Im more concerned about crazy women walking around with “post pardom psychosis” murdering their children than worrying about some stupid AI robot killing me
You know modern data center cooling works like a car radiator and recycles water, right?
Kindly don’t repeat chicom propaganda on FR.
National Psy-op Radio is opposed to data centers??? Okay. Now I’m thinking the data centers aren’t as bad as we’re being led to believe.
If AI via "LLMS" was the revolution the the Tech Bros claimed it was, they why do the have to keep telling us it is, shouldn't it be obvious ????
And then there is this, by far the largest concentration of data centers is in the Metro D.C. area, so if LLM AI is the productivity boom the experts say it is, then how come there haven't been mass layoffs of Goverment Workers ????
I thought we were allowing 500K Chinese students into America.
Why? We don’t need them in our country. When the data centers get inserted into the super rich areas and they tell everyone how wonderful it is, people may believe them.
Regional Snoop Centers.
less than a golf course
It’s not just water, it’s the noise and infra noise that is actually driving people and animals nuts. There is a lot of solid investigative journalism being done on the effect of data centers on the public. Go away soldier for the surveillance state.
It would be interesting to write a short story about nuclear weapons development in the 1940’s where NAZI Germany is the instigator in trying to shut it down in America. Or any technology for that matter.
Hmm. I wonder how much of Reagan’s “Star Wars” push back was of Soviet Union origin and support?
Just like it all, there are pros and cons. AI is all about information - I don’t think it is a good idea for China to be dominant in the field.
When did so many here at FR become Bootlickers for the surveillance state? It kind of blows my mind.
Building it out in Mongolia, actually:
https://x.com/RnaudBertrand/status/2099319829589295197?s=20
Take Elon Musk's so-called "Colossus" datacenter in Memphis, Tennessee which he pitches as "the world’s largest AI supercomputer."
According to their own numbers (https://x.ai/colossus), Colossus has 200,000 chips, which, let's be clear, is already super impressive.
In datacenter lingo, this converts to roughly 5000-6000 "racks": you know, the fridge-sized cabinets full of blinking lights you see in every movie scene set in a server room.
How many racks are they building in Ulanqab? Over 5 million.
Yes, about one thousand times the scale of "Colossus" 🤯
I tripled-checked the number: it is indeed the official number published by authoritative sources such as "Science and Technology Daily", the official newspaper of China's Ministry of Science and Technology (https://stdaily.com/web/gdxw/2026-08/20/content_567111.html).
This is an absurdly large amount of compute.
What we see appearing in this Inner Mongolian steppe may be the closest thing to a world brain humanity has ever built - a place where a large share of the world's thinking will physically happen.
There’s gambling at Rick’s Cafe? I’m shocked!
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