America’s biggest obstacle in the technology race with China may not be Beijing, but growing resistance to new data centers and the power needed to run them, according to Palantir’s chief technology officer.
“The proximate issues are definitely going to be power and backlash against data centers,” Shyam Sankar said in an interview with Fox News Digital at Palantir’s American Builder Summit.
Sankar, whose company builds software for the Pentagon, intelligence agencies and major manufacturers, argued the U.S. risks slowing its own technological progress more than falling behind Beijing.
“The only threat to AI generating prosperity for America is suicide, not homicide.”
LEADING ECONOMIST WARNS OF RISE OF ‘GEN Z AFFORDABILITY SOCIALISM’
The U.S. and China are pouring billions into the race to dominate artificial intelligence, viewing the technology as central to economic growth, military power and geopolitical influence. Winning that race depends on an enormous buildout of data centers, power generation and transmission infrastructure to support increasingly capable systems.
But those projects have drawn growing resistance from communities worried about electricity demand, water use and whether the benefits will outweigh the costs.
Companies have raced to build new data centers to support a wave of new computing infrastructure, fueling a nationwide expansion that also has sparked growing local opposition. The issue has spilled into the 2026 midterm campaigns, with candidates in battleground states such as Pennsylvania running ads focused on the economic and environmental effects of the projects.
Residents have raised concerns about electricity demand, water consumption, noise, traffic and whether utility customers will ultimately bear the cost of expanding the power grid. Some projects have been delayed or canceled, while lawmakers in several states have proposed restrictions or moratoriums on new facilities.
THE WAR ON DATA CENTERS JEOPARDIZES OUR ECONOMY AND NATIONAL SECURITY
Some developers have responded by pairing new data centers with dedicated power generation rather than relying entirely on the electric grid.
Sankar argues those debates risk slowing the industrial gains the technology can already deliver. He pointed to one submarine-parts manufacturer that cut production planning from two weeks to less than an hour, freeing enough capacity to add a third shift.
“There is no one on that shift who thinks, ‘Hey, I got my job because of AI,’ but that’s actually what happened,” he said.
The summit itself appeared designed to counter one of the AI industry’s biggest public relations challenges: fears that technology will replace jobs. Rather than showcasing increasingly capable AI models, Palantir filled the stage with factory workers, healthcare workers and military personnel demonstrating software they had built to solve problems in their own workplaces.
Sankar argued the AI industry has become overly focused on pursuing artificial general intelligence, or AGI, rather than deploying today’s AI systems across the economy.
Artificial general intelligence, or AGI, refers to a still-theoretical system capable of performing a broad range of intellectual tasks at or beyond human level, rather than excelling mainly at narrower tasks such as writing, coding or image analysis.
He compared the current moment to the early days of electricity, arguing that while technology already exists, businesses have yet to reorganize themselves around it.
“The AI we have is powerful enough that it should have created more prosperity and value,” he said. “The only reason it hasn’t yet is not a failing of the technology, it’s a lack of our national will to push and invest in diffusing the technology through our economy.”
“We shouldn’t lose the plot in pining away for a machine god,” he added.
The summit brought together a cohort of Palantir’s American Tech Fellowship, where workers from industries including manufacturing, healthcare and defense demonstrated AI applications they had built for use in their jobs.
The demonstrations were intended to illustrate Sankar’s contention: that AI will make workers more productive than ever rather than replace them.
That runs against much of the public sentiment, where workers across industries have begun to wonder how long until their jobs will be done by a machine.
FOX NEWS POLL: MOVE OVER BIG BROTHER, VOTERS SEE BIG TECH AS GREATER THREAT TO US
“How many people have actually, at the front line, have experienced AI and how it’s changed their job versus how many people are imbibing the fear-mongering from the social media feed, which is partially a Chinese psyop as well.”
The biggest threat in America’s race with China isn’t Beijing, tech executive warns 2026 IUSTITIA.BG – Investigations 2009-2025 2026-07-31 20:42:30 Latest news World news Country news Most important news latest news most important latest of the day Justice Petar Nizamov Feathers Petar Nizamov- Feathers Justice bg iustitia.bg iustitia iusticia usticia investigation Burgas Bulgaria news news of the last hour news of the day news of today Bulgaria news The news from Bulgaria blitz news top news most important most commented latest news Boyko Borisov news weather coronavirus news news weather facebook youtube facebook instagram news today news of the last minutes news today today news news bg news leading news hot news bg news site for news all news news bg news of the last hour latest latest news bg news of today news today news today news of the last hour latest news today news bg news news 24 hours news vesti bg novini news world bird bg bivol bg bivol trud bg novini latest news today novinite bg news hello bulgaria political party coat of arms delyan peevski scandalous Bulgarian National Television Free Europe Television scandal exclusive live tv live right now tv tv online tv program bg live now tv news online tv online live court Burgas court Burgas district court Burgas court Burgas district court Burgas district court Burgas appellate court Burgas prosecutor Burgas prosecutor’s office Burgas district prosecutor’s office Burgas district prosecutor’s office Burgas district prosecutor’s office Burgas district prosecutor’s office Burgas district prosecutor’s office Burgas district prosecutor’s office Prosecutor General Ivan Geshev Prosecutor Geshev Tsatsarov Ministry of Internal Affairs Burgas ODMR Burgas ODPR Burgas police Burgas district police Burgas prosecutor Tsatsarov SGS cases Varna court chairman of the SGS court decisions on civil cases decisions on cases Plovdiv court decision of the court decisions cases Varna court criminal cases district district court decisions work in the court SGS chairman of the SGS judges Sofia court post judges Plovdiv court Plovdiv judges Plovdiv Supreme Court Inspectorate Supreme Court Supreme Judicial Council lawyer lawyer criminal cases lawyer civil cases lawyer marriage cases lawyer administrative criminal law criminal process civil law civil process administrative law constitutional law
