China’s rapid expansion of AI infrastructure raises concerns about its potential to close the gap with the U.S., despite significant challenges in chip availability.
China is accelerating its efforts to build the data centers and energy infrastructure necessary to support artificial intelligence (AI), prompting concerns that its ability to rapidly construct large-scale projects could help it narrow the gap with the United States in the AI race. While the U.S. currently maintains a significant lead in the number of data centers, the speed of China’s advancements is noteworthy.
According to the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence’s 2026 AI Index, the U.S. boasted 5,427 data centers in 2025, compared to just 449 in China. However, the Stanford report cautioned that these figures do not account for differences in facility size, computing capacity, or utilization rates. Despite this, experts agree that China is making swift progress.
“We know that China is far behind, but we also know that they are moving at great speed,” said China expert Gordon Chang in an interview with Fox News Digital. He emphasized that if the U.S. maintains its current pace of development, it will be challenging for China to erase the existing advantage.
Former President Donald Trump echoed these concerns, warning that local opposition to new data center projects could inadvertently benefit China. On his Truth Social platform, Trump stated, “China could not be happier with this anti-data center movement. Actually, they can’t believe it is happening!” He argued that communities that welcome data centers would see job creation and increased tax revenues.
Vice President JD Vance also weighed in on the issue, asserting that there is a “very good chance” the U.S. could lose the AI race to China if Democrats regain control of Congress. Vance highlighted the broader challenge of ensuring that the U.S. can generate enough power to support data centers and other critical infrastructure. “We cannot be a country that says we’re not going to build more power,” he stated, advocating for regulatory reforms to facilitate the construction of power plants alongside data centers while protecting residential ratepayers from rising electricity costs.
Vance further pointed to the widening electricity generation gap between the U.S. and China, noting that China currently produces approximately three times as much power as the United States. “We’ve got to build more power plants. We’ve got to make the regulatory state easier to work with,” he added.
In response to concerns about its infrastructure expansion, the Chinese Embassy in Washington rejected the notion that AI should be viewed primarily as a geopolitical contest. Embassy spokesperson Liu Chang stated, “AI should not be owned by major countries, still less dominated by contests and rivalry.” He referenced China’s 2025 Global AI Governance Action Plan, which aims to accelerate the construction of clean power, next-generation networks, computing capacity, and data centers. Liu expressed a desire for cooperation with the U.S. to ensure that AI development benefits both nations and the international community.
However, behind this diplomatic message, China is reorganizing its computing infrastructure on a massive scale. Under the “East Data, West Computing” initiative, Beijing is directing more computing capacity toward its western regions, where land is more readily available and renewable energy resources can help reduce costs. A report from the government-backed Digital China initiative indicated that five of China’s eight national computing hubs are located in western China, with over 30 data centers currently under construction in Horinger, Inner Mongolia, and significant construction activity in Zhongwei, Ningxia.
Members of the bipartisan U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission recently observed these developments during a fact-finding trip to China. Commission Vice Chairman Mike Kuiken remarked, “I left with an intense belief that the Chinese see this as the frontier in terms of competition,” noting that AI is increasingly intertwined with robotics, biotechnology, advanced materials, and manufacturing.
Kuiken acknowledged that China has a significant advantage in constructing the necessary infrastructure due to its ability to bypass regulatory hurdles. “The Chinese, because they write the rules as they go, and the rule of law largely does not exist, are able to just move faster in terms of building things,” he explained. However, he also pointed out a major weakness for China: access to advanced chips. “The constraints that are real though, the Chinese do not have the ability to procure advanced chips,” he said, while praising Beijing’s rapid construction of coal plants and other infrastructure as “quite incredible.”
The U.S. retains substantial advantages beyond its lead in data centers. The Stanford Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence’s 2026 AI Index found that the U.S. produced 59 notable AI models in 2025, compared to 35 from China. Additionally, U.S. private AI investment reached $285.9 billion, while China’s investment was significantly lower at $12.4 billion. However, Stanford cautioned that these figures may understate Beijing’s overall spending due to government-backed funding.
As the competition intensifies, Chinese AI models have rapidly narrowed the performance gap. The Stanford report indicated that as of March 2026, the top U.S. AI model led its Chinese counterpart by just 2.7%. Chang also alleged that Beijing is attempting to exploit American opposition to data centers, claiming that China-linked networks have supported protests against such projects in the U.S. “These protests are not entirely organic,” he stated.
Kuiken, however, urged caution in framing local disputes as part of a broader anti-China narrative, noting that genuine concerns about electricity costs, water usage, noise, and land development have also fueled opposition to data center projects. “We are building things in the U.S. faster than we have in a long time,” he said, highlighting that policymakers are actively addressing infrastructure constraints.
The emerging competition between the U.S. and China is not solely about developing the most advanced AI models. It is increasingly a race to build the electricity, data centers, chips, and networks necessary to operate these models at scale—and the speed at which these infrastructures can be constructed will be crucial in determining the outcome.
According to Fox News Digital, the implications of this competition extend far beyond technological advancements, impacting economic and national security considerations for both nations.