China is racing to build the data centers and energy infrastructure needed to power artificial intelligence, raising concerns that Beijing’s ability to rapidly construct massive projects could help it get closer to America’s commanding lead in the physical infrastructure underpinning the AI race.

The U.S. remains far ahead in sheer numbers. The Stanford Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence’s 2026 AI Index, using Cloudscene data, counted 5,427 U.S. data centers in 2025 compared with 449 in China. Stanford cautioned that the count does not account for differences in facility size, computing capacity or utilization.

But China is moving quickly.

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"We know that China is far behind, but we also know that they are moving at great speed," China expert Gordon Chang told Fox News Digital.

Chang argued that Beijing understands the U.S. advantage will be difficult to erase if America continues building at the same pace and said growing opposition to data-center development could slow that expansion.

President Donald Trump made a similar argument this week, warning communities fighting new projects that China stands to benefit.

"China could not be happier with this anti Data Center movement," Trump wrote on Truth Social. "Actually, they can’t believe it is happening!" Trump also argued that communities embracing data centers would gain jobs and tax revenues.

Vice President JD Vance sharpened that warning Thursday, telling FOX Business there was "a very good chance" the U.S. could lose the AI race to China if Democrats regain control of Congress.

Vance said the broader problem is America’s ability to build enough power to support data centers and other major infrastructure. "We cannot be a country that says we’re not going to build more power," Vance said, arguing that the administration is trying to make it easier to construct power plants alongside data centers while protecting residential ratepayers from higher electricity costs.

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He also pointed to the widening U.S.-China electricity gap, saying China now generates roughly three times as much power as the United States. "We’ve got to build more power plants. We’ve got to make the regulatory state easier to work with."

Asked about China’s rapid infrastructure expansion, the Chinese Embassy in Washington rejected the premise that AI should primarily be viewed as a geopolitical contest.

"AI should not be owned by major countries, still less dominated by contests and rivalry," Embassy spokesperson Liu Chang told Fox News Digital.

Liu pointed to China’s 2025 Global AI Governance Action Plan, which calls for accelerating construction of clean power, next-generation networks, computing capacity and data centers. He said China advocates cooperation with the U.S. and wants AI development to benefit both countries and the broader international community.

Behind that diplomatic message, Beijing is undertaking a massive geographic reorganization of its computing infrastructure.

Under China’s "East Data, West Computing" initiative, Beijing is directing more computing capacity toward western regions where land is available and wind and solar resources can help reduce energy costs.

Five of China’s eight national computing hubs are located in western China, according to a June 25 report from the government-backed Digital China initiative. More than 30 data centers were under construction within a three-kilometer area in Horinger, Inner Mongolia, while intensive construction was also underway in Zhongwei, Ningxia.

That buildout caught the attention of members of the bipartisan US-China Economic and Security Review Commission during a recent fact-finding trip to China.

"I left with an intense belief that the Chinese see this as the frontier in terms of competition," Commission Vice Chairman Mike Kuiken told Fox News Digital, describing AI as increasingly intertwined with robotics, biotechnology, advanced materials and manufacturing.

Kuiken said China has one significant advantage when it comes to constructing the infrastructure needed to support that technology.

"The Chinese, because they write the rules as they go, and the rule of law largely does not exist, are able to just move faster in terms of building things," he said.

But Kuiken also identified a major Chinese weakness: access to the most advanced chips.

"The constraints that are real though, the Chinese do not have the ability to procure advanced chips," he said, while describing Beijing’s ability to rapidly construct coal plants and other infrastructure as "quite incredible."

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The U.S. retains major advantages beyond its data-center lead. The Stanford Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence’s 2026 AI Index found that America produced 59 notable AI models in 2025 compared with 35 from China, and U.S. private AI investment reached $285.9 billion, compared with $12.4 billion in China. Stanford cautioned that private investment figures understate Beijing’s overall spending because of Chinese government-backed funds.

At the same time, Chinese models have rapidly narrowed the performance gap. Stanford’s 2026 AI Index found that as of March 2026, the top U.S. model led the top Chinese model by just 2.7%.

Chang also alleged that Beijing is seeking to exploit American opposition to data centers and claimed China-linked networks have helped support protests against projects in the US. "These protests are not entirely organic," Chang told Fox News Digital.

Kuiken was cautious about portraying those local disputes as part of a broader anti-China fight, saying genuine U.S. opposition to data-center projects has also emerged over concerns including electricity costs, water use, noise and land development.

"We are building things in the U.S. faster than we have in a long time," he said, adding that policymakers are working through infrastructure constraints. "Usually there are local issues that are driving those things."

The emerging competition, therefore, is not simply over who develops the smartest AI model.

It is increasingly a race over who can build the electricity, data centers, chips and networks needed to run those models at enormous scale — and how quickly they can build them.