Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, declared that determining the winner of the artificial intelligence race against China is the single most important economic question facing the United States. The Texas senator, who chairs the Senate Commerce Committee, stated that the outcome will determine whether American values such as free speech and individualism are embedded in AI systems or whether Chinese Communist Party values of control and surveillance prevail.
Cruz warned that opposition to data centers in the United States is being manipulated by a coordinated campaign. In an interview with Fox News Digital, he drew a parallel to Middle Eastern countries funding anti-fracking movements to prevent American energy development. He argued that if Americans are convinced to reject domestic data centers and rely on China for AI, it benefits Beijing at the expense of the United States.
The senator characterized this opposition as the dominant position on the Democratic side. He linked this stance to large industry players, including Anthropic, claiming they seek antitrust exemptions and government control over AI development. Cruz associated these positions with leftist ideology and the effective altruism movement, describing the latter as a group of hardcore leftists attempting to use AI to push their ideology. He further described the actions of giant AI companies as rent seeking, where firms seek government benefits to entrench themselves against competition.
OpenAI provided evidence of foreign influence operations targeting US AI policy in June. The company announced it had banned ChatGPT accounts believed to have originated in China after discovering they were generating social media comments and images alleging that data centers raise electricity costs for Americans. OpenAI stated it shut down two clusters of accounts that were used in support of apparent covert influence operations designed to manipulate the debate on American AI and tech policies.
Parker Thayer, an investigative researcher at the Capital Research Center in Washington, D.C., told Fox News Digital that effective altruism is associated with what he termed the AI doomerism movement. Dustin Moskovitz, a Facebook co-founder who left the company in 2008, and his wife Cari Tuna have been leading financial backers of organizations linked to this movement. The couple founded Coefficient Giving, formerly known as Open Philanthropy, and remain its main funders according to the organization. Tuna serves as its president.
Coefficient Giving reported that its artificial intelligence work has expanded rapidly. The organization committed $168 million to AI safety, security, and field-building in 2024 and $351 million in 2025. It is on track to commit more than $1 billion to AI policy advocacy in 2026. A 2021 grant application description from the organization stated its goal to fund programs in areas including effective altruism, global catastrophic risks, biosecurity, and AI for epistemics. In 2015, Coefficient Giving launched Project Tailwind, an initiative that issued a call for founders to launch ambitious AI safety initiatives.