X uncovers massive Chinese bot farm targeting US data center debate — as Alaska weighs its own AI future

By SUZANNE DOWNING

Aug. 31. 2026 – A suspected Chinese influence operation involving roughly 200,000 inauthentic accounts was uncovered by X this week, including hundreds of accounts attempting to shape the American debate over artificial intelligence data centers and energy policy.

The disclosure comes as Alaska faces its own emerging fight over whether massive data centers could become a new industry for the state — or place unacceptable demands on its energy resources and infrastructure.

X’s Global Government Affairs account said its Safety team identified the suspected Chinese bot farm during an investigation into coordinated influence operations. Within that larger network, approximately 200 accounts were posting material that could manipulate what X called a legitimate debate over American AI development and energy policy.

The accounts amplified complaints already being raised in communities across the country: that data centers could increase household electricity bills, strain local power grids and force ordinary ratepayers to subsidize infrastructure needed by some of the world’s wealthiest technology companies.

Some of the accounts used AI-generated cartoons depicting grid operators or technology companies pocketing money while families were left with higher power bills.

X said the accounts violated its authenticity policies and were suspended.

The company did not say how many people saw the posts or provide evidence that the operation changed any votes, permitting decisions or public policies. The disclosure indicates an effort to influence the debate, but it does not establish that China created the underlying opposition or controlled the larger political conversation.

In Alaska, the state is considering a proposed $500 million data center campus from STAK Energy approximately 26 miles south of Deadhorse. According to state documents, the project could ultimately generate as much as three gigawatts of electricity from North Slope natural gas and would support artificial intelligence, cloud computing and other high-performance computing operations.

The development would occupy roughly one square mile and include its own gas-fired power generation, pipelines, fiber connections and supporting infrastructure. Because it would be built close to North Slope gas supplies and operate outside the Railbelt electrical grid, supporters argue it could monetize stranded gas without competing directly with homes and businesses in Southcentral Alaska.

STAK describes the proposal as an off-grid development positioned near some of North America’s largest natural gas fields. Alaska’s cold climate could also reduce the amount of energy and water needed to cool the computer equipment.

But the scale of the proposal has generated questions. State documents indicate the completed campus could consume more than twice as much natural gas as urban Alaska currently uses for electrical generation and residential and commercial heating.

The debate has reached Anchorage, where the Assembly adopted regulations this year governing large data centers and other energy-intensive facilities. The ordinance requires conditional-use approval, limits the facilities to commercial and industrial zones, imposes noise and setback standards, and requires developers to demonstrate adequate electric, water and wastewater capacity.

Applicants may also be required to pay for infrastructure improvements when existing public systems cannot accommodate a project.

At the state level, lawmakers considered Senate Bill 250, which would have required special utility contracts for large data centers and sought to prevent the cost of new generation, substations, transmission lines or gas infrastructure from being shifted onto existing customers. The bill did not become law.

A Gallup survey published in May found that 71% of Americans opposed construction of an AI data center in their local area, including 48% who were strongly opposed. Respondents cited water consumption, noise, land use, pollution and potential electricity costs.

The Chinese activity appears designed to exploit precisely those existing concerns.

In June, OpenAI reported that it had banned two clusters of ChatGPT accounts likely originating in China. One cluster, labeled the “Data Center Bandwagon” campaign, used the platform to generate English-language social media comments and images portraying the operators as ordinary Americans.

The content claimed that data centers were driving up electricity demand and forcing families to pay higher rates. OpenAI said the operators prompted the system in Simplified Chinese, used virtual private networks to access the service and requested posts written from the perspectives of Americans with different backgrounds.

OpenAI found no evidence that the campaign achieved meaningful reach beyond its own accounts. But the operation demonstrated that China-linked actors were testing arguments that could weaken support for an industry increasingly viewed as critical to American technological and national-security competition.

Separately, the Bitcoin Policy Institute has documented campaigns involving the Party for Socialism and Liberation and organizations with personnel connections to the network of Neville Roy Singham, an American expatriate living in Shanghai who has faced congressional scrutiny over reported ties to the Chinese Communist Party.

A June report from the institute claimed those campaigns contributed to delays, moratoriums or cancellations involving approximately $23.6 billion in proposed data center investments across 14 states.

The institute acknowledged that Americans have genuine reasons to question data center developments and that the public record does not establish who funds most of the organization’s non-election activism. Its report alleges that China-aligned interests are working alongside — and attempting to amplify — an otherwise authentic domestic movement.

Meanwhile, China is accelerating construction of its own AI infrastructure. Beijing is reportedly considering a roughly $295 billion national data center and computing network, while Chinese technology giant Alibaba announced this month that it would raise more than $10 billion for AI, cloud infrastructure and related investments.

That gives China a clear strategic interest in slowing the construction of competing American computing capacity.

For Alaska, the X disclosure may make Alaskans more careful about who is attempting to influence it.

The state still must determine whether projects such as STAK Energy’s North Slope campus can produce jobs, investment and new demand for stranded natural gas without placing costs or risks on existing ratepayers. Alaska also needs enforceable safeguards covering utility expenses, gas supplies, water, noise, environmental effects and the eventual decommissioning of the facilities.