Overlooked in the increasingly heated debate over data centers, the backbone of the artificial intelligence ecosystem, is the strategic reality that data centers are vital for America’s national security in its three inextricably intertwined dimensions: military security, economic security, and political security. In our democratic federal structure, this debate, which ranges from hysteria fueled by ignorance and hype driven by wishful thinking, must and will play out at national, state, and local levels to resolve particular concerns such as a local zoning ordinance, a state sales tax exemption, or a federal nuclear energy operating license. 

President Donald Trump, as the nation’s chief executive officer and commander in chief, must use the bully pulpit of his office to warn that decisions to stifle data centers and the AI ecosystem would not only jeopardize our national security now and in the future but also cede the technological future to our adversaries, such as China.