As AI data centers face local resistance, a group tied to billionaire AI investors Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz, as well as OpenAI President Greg Brockman and his wife Anna, is planning to drop millions of dollars in states—starting in Kansas, Ohio, and Wisconsin—where data center construction has become a flashpoint in the midterm elections.
Build American AI, a dark money group tied to the deep-pocketed super PAC Leading the Future, announced on Aug. 31 that it is launching a major new campaign of ads, grassroots engagement, and public education to defend data center buildout, and told Axios that it had $50 million in the bank.
Leading the Future, the AI industry-bankrolled super PAC, has spent more than $28 million through its affiliates so far this cycle on independent expenditures, backing U.S. House and Senate candidates aligned with its agenda on AI regulation. Its allied 501(c)4, Build American AI, said this week that it would launch another super PAC, Building the Future, that will back state candidates, in addition to federal ones. The planned pro-data-center campaigns come after Build American AI spent more than half a million dollars earlier this year acquiring a list of followers, Transformer News reported.
The group’s executive director is Nathan Leamer, formerly vice president of public affairs at the Republican digital firm Targeted Victory, as well as a policy advisor to former FCC Chair Ajit Pai. Leamer is also a director of the advocacy nonprofit Taxpayers Protection Alliance, which the watchdog Energy and Policy Institute has traced to the Koch political network, and his boutique consulting firm was paid over $150,000 in 2024 by a construction trade group. Build American AI applauded the Trump White House’s December 2025 executive order on AI, which echoed the lobbying aims of a16z and others by calling for a federal AI framework that would preempt state protections already on the books.
The AI industry has stakes in each of the three initial states targeted by Build American AI. In Kansas, where many data centers are in the pipeline, the issue of a potential moratorium on construction popped up in gubernatorial primaries on both sides of the aisle, as did effects on utility bills. In Ohio, data centers are trending in the toss-up Senate race between Jon Husted and Sherrod Brown, sparking worry in the Senate Republican campaign arm; Amazon, Google, and Meta have projects in the state, and OpenAI is planning a massive data center in central Ohio. In Wisconsin, where the race for governor is immersed in data center debate, OpenAI plans a $15 billion data hub in Port Washington.
The a16z- and OpenAI-tied Build American AI is not the only tech interest spending big in states to sway public opinion, as polls show three-quarters of Americans would oppose a data center being built near them.
Since 2024, the Data Center Coalition (DCC), the largest data center trade association, has been rolling out advocacy groups under the organization America Connects across eight states, with names such as Virginia Connects, Texas Connects, and Connected Georgia. The chapters run ad campaigns supporting data center construction, including “creating good-paying jobs,” and pushing back against opposition. The groups' ads in Virginia, Texas, Pennsylvania, Georgia, and North Carolina have received nearly 54 million views on YouTube, according to a Sludge review, some getting millions of views in just a few months.
The DCC-backed ads say, among other things, that “across the nation, data centers are paying their own energy costs”—a claim contested by research into utility costs by the nonprofit Union of Concerned Scientists.
“The energy costs claim is an easy one to make, but the construction of new power plants to provide that energy is distinctly not being covered in most situations that have been brought to regulators,” said Mike Jacobs, senior energy analyst with UCS. “There are clear requirements in the agreements for transmission, from Exelon for example, that push costs to all consumers.”
Facts Only
* A group tied to Marc Andreessen, Ben Horowitz, Greg Brockman, and Anna is planning to spend millions defending data center buildout in states including Kansas, Ohio, and Wisconsin.
* Build American AI, a group tied to the super PAC Leading the Future, announced launching new campaigns, grassroots engagement, and public education on August 31.
* Build American AI reported having $50 million in the bank.
* Leading the Future spent over $28 million through affiliates in the current cycle on independent expenditures supporting U.S. House and Senate candidates aligned with AI regulation.
* Build American AI announced plans to launch another super PAC, Building the Future, to back state candidates.
* The group’s executive director is Nathan Leamer, formerly of Targeted Victory and a policy advisor to Ajit Pai.
* Build American AI applauded the Trump White House’s December 2025 executive order on AI.
* The AI industry has stakes in Kansas, Ohio, and Wisconsin regarding data centers.
* Kansas saw gubernatorial primary debates on construction moratoriums and utility bills.
* Ohio data center trends are relevant to the Senate race between Jon Husted and Sherrod Brown.
* OpenAI plans a $15 billion data hub in Port Washington, Wisconsin.
* The Data Center Coalition (DCC) has rolled out advocacy groups across eight states supporting construction.
Executive Summary
Full Take
The dynamic presented involves the intersection of private capital interests, political advocacy, and public infrastructure development, framed around energy costs and local opposition. A pattern emerges where large entities—AI investors and major tech companies—leverage political spending to influence regulatory and local zoning decisions affecting physical infrastructure placement. The strategy shifts from direct lobbying to creating localized, community-facing narratives through groups like Build American AI and the DCC, attempting to shift public perception on a contentious issue. This operates by framing infrastructure expansion not purely as economic development but as an immediate conflict over energy costs and local autonomy.
The implication is that systemic concerns regarding energy transmission and infrastructure financing are being deliberately obscured by focusing political discourse narrowly on site-specific controversies. The fact that entities tied to AI leadership are funding these efforts suggests a convergence where technological imperatives are being translated into localized political friction points for mobilization. The public's potential opposition, as suggested by polling, is being met with coordinated messaging that attempts to channel this dissent into specific electoral contests.
What assumptions underpin the narrative of "defending data center buildout"? It assumes that infrastructure development is inherently a zero-sum conflict between development and community well-being, overlooking potential solutions that address energy cost structures more directly. Who bears the cost of this conflict? The data suggests that while some groups focus on job creation (via DCC ads), fundamental questions about externalized energy costs remain contested across states. Further inquiry must explore whether the efforts to frame the issue are successfully redirecting attention away from the broader systemic implications of centralized, high-energy data infrastructure. What specific mechanisms of public education are most effective in dismantling the narrative that construction is solely an economic good?
Sentinel — Human
This text reads like synthesized investigative reporting that effectively weaves together financial interests, political action groups, and energy economics to frame a specific policy debate.