Swansenreport

Who’s Really Behind the ‘No Data Centers’ Movement? Follow the Money to Shanghai.

The protests that have been showing up at data center zoning meetings across America — including right here in Wisconsin — carry all the hallmarks of genuine grassroots opposition: local faces, handmade signs, chants about electricity bills and water usage. A new investigative report says the money behind them leads to a billionaire living in Shanghai with documented ties to the Chinese Communist Party.

A report published May 18 by the Bitcoin Policy Institute traces three converging vectors of foreign influence on the campaign to slow U.S. AI data center construction: CCP state media outlets CGTN, China Daily, and Global Times running attributed campaigns against U.S. AI infrastructure; a network of American 501(c)(3) nonprofits funded by Neville Roy Singham — a U.S. expatriate living in Shanghai — that have spent nearly five years producing domestic content opposing American AI infrastructure; and more than $2 billion routed through foreign-tied charitable vehicles into U.S. advocacy groups driving the anti-data-center push. Oduu

Singham, who sold his IT consulting firm and relocated to Shanghai, has given over $278 million to thousands of left-wing nonprofits since 2017. The organizations his network funds — including CodePink, the People’s Forum, BreakThrough News, and the Party for Socialism and Liberation — have been at the forefront of anti-data center activism nationwide. PSL co-led a “Beating the Data Centers Statewide Day of Action” that hit the Wisconsin Capitol and Milwaukee on the same day, with chants nearly identical to those at protests from coast to coast. Yahoo!

Congressional investigators have flagged the Singham network for possible Foreign Agents Registration Act violations — the law that requires those acting as agents of foreign governments to publicly disclose that relationship. The DOJ, DHS, and Department of War are conducting a joint interagency investigation. House Ways and Means Chairman Jason Smith set a May 18 deadline for three Singham-funded organizations — the People’s Forum, BreakThrough News, and Tricontinental — to turn over funding records or face subpoenas. The Senate Judiciary Committee under Chairman Chuck Grassley has demanded a FARA-registration determination on the network’s U.S. affiliates. Wislawjournal

The story took an unexpected turn this week when far-left influencer Hasan Piker — himself a figure in the Singham network’s orbit — acknowledged on stream that Singham is “probably” the target of Treasury scrutiny, naming PSL, ANSWER Coalition, and CodePink as parts of “his operation.” Congressional investigators say it is the first time a figure inside the network has publicly acknowledged the political character of the organizations’ activities — significant because nonprofits enjoying tax-exempt charitable status face strict legal limits on political work. Wisconsin Right Now

The Wisconsin connection deserves a closer look. Your data center/utility rate story from earlier this spring documented the PSC’s ruling on We Energies and the OpenAI Stargate campus in Port Washington. The “grassroots” opposition that has been appearing at those zoning and rate hearings now has a documented funding source — one that traces to a man living in the country currently engaged in an AI arms race with the United States.

Sources: Bitcoin Policy Institute — Full Report | Fox News Digital | Daily Caller | The Dossier — Wisconsin angle | Fox News — Hasan Piker