China Accelerates AI Buildout as U.S. Holds 5,427 Data Centers to China’s 449

3 articles · Updated · Fox News · Sep 4

China is rapidly expanding data centers and power capacity to close the AI infrastructure gap, with officials and U.S. observers increasingly framing the contest around electricity, computing hubs and construction speed—not just models.
Stanford’s 2026 AI Index still shows a wide U.S. lead in physical scale, counting 5,427 U.S. data centers in 2025 versus 449 in China, alongside 59 notable U.S. AI models and $285.9 billion in private investment.
Beijing is pushing that buildout through its “East Data, West Computing” plan, placing five of eight national computing hubs in western China; more than 30 data centers were under construction in one Inner Mongolia cluster.
U.S. officials and analysts say China’s advantage is speed—helped by looser constraints on building power plants and facilities—while its main weakness remains limited access to the most advanced chips.
The debate has sharpened in the U.S. as Trump and Vice President JD Vance warn local resistance to new data centers and power projects could aid China, even as communities cite electricity costs, water use, noise and land impacts.