X discovered a botfarm of 200,000 accounts from China, some of which fueled fears around AI data centers
X says it has identified a bot farm of roughly 200,000 accounts created by Chinese operators.
Of those, 200 accounts stood out for posting content specifically against AI data center construction. According to X's Global Government Affairs division, these accounts were operating "in a manner that could manipulate a legitimate debate about American AI and energy policy."
The posts centered on two main claims – that data centers are driving up electricity bills for ordinary families and straining power grids.
Some posts also included AI-generated cartoons depicting data-center operators enriching themselves at the public's expense.
At least two of the images X cited had already appeared in an OpenAI report from June. That report found that China-based ChatGPT users had asked the chatbot for ways to influence American opinion on data centers. The resulting posts pushed the same narrative about rising electricity rates.
The interesting wrinkle here is that these "claims" line up with independent data. Bloomberg found electricity prices near data centers have jumped by as much as 267%, and Goldman Sachs pointed to a 6.9% year-over-year increase in rates as of February 2026, with more growth expected as new facilities come online.
X hasn't said what the remaining 198,800 accounts were posting about. The June OpenAI report noted that similar networks were criticizing US tariffs and tech policy, so the content was likely along those lines.
Opposition to data center construction in the US keeps growing in both scale and intensity. Critics argue this pushback hurts the economy and national security. Fox News compared the protests to demonstrations against tank and plane factories during World War II, and President Donald Trump said opponents of new facilities are "making a mistake."
Local residents had plenty of complaints long before Chinese bots entered the picture, though. A planned campus in Michigan is expected to draw 1.4 gigawatts, comparable to a nuclear power plant's output, and residents there have also raised concerns about traffic and the loss of farmland.
Water use is another sore spot. Virginia data centers consumed at least 1.85 billion gallons in 2023, up from 1.13 billion in 2019. In Georgia, one facility used 29 million gallons of water before it even received a bill, while nearby households complained about low water pressure.
On top of that, there's constant noise and pollution to deal with, especially when operators switch to diesel generators and gas turbines because the grid can't keep up. Chinese operators may be exploiting the conflict, but they certainly didn't create it.
