A Shanghai-based American expatriate with ties to the Chinese Communist Party is using a network of U.S. nonprofits to fuel opposition to artificial intelligence and data centers in an effort to help China surpass America in the technology race, according to a report from the Bitcoin Policy Institute. The report reveals that Neville Roy Singham, a tech mogul who sold his consulting company for $785 million in 2017, has been funding organizations that churn out anti-AI materials for the past five years. The effort has prompted calls from lawmakers for federal investigations into what they describe as foreign influence targeting American AI infrastructure.
The report identifies several Singham-funded nonprofits producing content that opposes U.S. technological advancement. These organizations have generated papers opposing export controls on advanced semiconductors to China, newsletters quoting Chinese Communist Party officials criticizing America's technology strategy, and articles framing U.S. data centers as weapons in "the new Cold War on China." The network includes Code Pink, led by Singham's wife Jodie Evans, the New York City event space The People's Forum, which helped organize campus protests in 2024, and the Massachusetts-based think-tank Tricontinental, where Singham chairs the international advisory board and where his son Nate once worked as a researcher. A 2023 New York Times investigation had previously identified Singham as the source of a "global web of Chinese propaganda."
Senate Intelligence Committee chairman Tom Cotton sent a letter to acting attorney general Todd Blanche in mid-June requesting an investigation into "foreign influence efforts targeting the buildout of American AI infrastructure." House Energy and Commerce Committee chairman Brett Guthrie asked the FBI and the President's Council of Advisers on Science and Technology to provide information on the influence campaign. Cotton told the Washington Free Beacon that "Neville Singham has ties to the Chinese Communist Party so it's no surprise he's pushing anti-American policies through fake nonprofits," adding that "The Department of Justice should launch a full investigation into this attempt to undermine America's prosperity."
The report's findings matter because they expose a coordinated campaign to slow American progress in artificial intelligence at a critical moment in the technology competition with China. By funding organizations that appear to be grassroots American nonprofits, Singham can amplify opposition to AI development and data center construction without the messaging appearing to come directly from Chinese interests. The strategy works by creating what looks like domestic American concern about AI technology, when the report suggests the real goal is helping China gain an edge in what lawmakers are treating as a technological arms race with national security implications.
The lawmakers' calls for investigation signal that federal authorities may soon scrutinize the funding and activities of nonprofits involved in the network. The report frames the influence operation as part of a broader pattern of Chinese efforts to undermine American technological leadership through seemingly independent American voices. For readers, the bottom line is clear: not all opposition to AI development may be what it appears to be on the surface.