I keep hearing the same line. We need more data centers. More power. More land. More everything. Because China is about to eat our lunch. If I hear one more conservative talk show host parrot the lie I am going to scream.
WE DON’T NEED MORE SURVEILLANCE CENTERS!
At this point the claim has the same energy as someone standing next to a finished house and yelling that we still need to pour the foundation. The building is already up. The numbers are standing right there in plain sight, and they are not playing along with the panic. Let’s put this lie to bed so I can finally get some sleep at night.
Let’s do the math on our existing dominance in data centers
(Either the people still parroting the “we’re behind China” line have never bothered to look at the actual numbers, or they spent twelve years in public school learning new math and writing how they felt about the problem.)
Facts vs Feelings:
The truth? America already has more data centers than the rest of the world combined. We are not losing the race – we’re lapping the field. [1]
China has 1.42 billion people – USA has 347 million people (China has ~4× more people) [2]
USA has 5,426 data centers – China has only 449
Per person:
- 1 data center for every 64,000 Americans
- 1 data center for every 3.2 million Chinese
Simple way to say it: The average American is 50 times more likely to have a data center “nearby” than the average Chinese.
The United States already has over 5,000 data centers (estimates range from ~4,184 to 5,427 as of early-to-mid 2026), while China has roughly 350–450. America has more facilities than the next 14–26 countries combined, depending on the dataset referred to. We are not behind. We dominate global data center capacity and power.
United States: 5,427 data centers (higher-end estimate from Cloudscene/Statista-linked sources as of late 2025/early 2026)
Running tally of the next countries (cumulative sum building toward the US total):
- United Kingdom: 555 (cumulative: 555)
- Germany: 523 (cumulative: 1,078)
- France: 394 (cumulative: 1,472)
- China: 369 (cumulative: 1,841)
- India: 296 (cumulative: 2,137)
- Canada: 288 (cumulative: 2,425)
- Australia: 284 (cumulative: 2,709)
- Japan: 257 (cumulative: 2,966)
- Italy: 252 (cumulative: 3,218)
- Brazil: 212 (cumulative: 3,430)
- Spain: 209 (cumulative: 3,639)
- Indonesia: 198 (cumulative: 3,837)
- Netherlands: 186 (cumulative: 4,023)
- Russia: 183 (cumulative: 4,206)
- Ireland: 139 (cumulative: 4,345)
- Sweden: 117 (cumulative: 4,462)
- Switzerland: 120 (cumulative: 4,582)
- Mexico: 173 (cumulative: 4,755)
- Poland: 144 (cumulative: 4,899)
- Turkey: ~100 (cumulative: 4,999)
- South Korea: ~100 (cumulative: 5,099)
- Denmark: ~80 (cumulative: 5,179)
- Hong Kong: ~80 (cumulative: 5,259)
- Singapore: 99 (cumulative: 5,358)
- Belgium: ~80 (cumulative: 5,438)
- Austria: ~70 (cumulative: 5,508) ← Surpasses US total here
Source for these statistics: Statista / Cloudscene Data Center Counts :full global database via Cloudscene/Data Center Map).
Critics argue that the US may be ahead in small data centers and overall numbers, but China has more large data centers with more computing power. That is also a complete fabrication.
Mega-Scale Powerhouses over 100 Megawatts: America’s 580 Giants Crush China’s 100–150
The U.S. runs about 580 huge powerhouses over 100 megawatts that train the smartest AI models. These facilities have a whopping 53.7 gigawatts of total power, grabbing 51-54% of the world’s share. That’s roughly four times more sites than China’s 100-150 facilities and twice the raw power at 31.9 gigawatts (just 16-26% globally) This spread-out U.S. network makes AI training much more reliable, because if one center goes down or loses power, the work instantly shifts to others and nothing crashes. [3] [4]
Medium and Edge Facilities: America’s Massive Backup Network
Medium-Scale Data Centers 10-100 megawatts: US-over 1,000 vs China-200 to 300
For general AI and cloud work the U.S. leads with over 1,000 facilities as part of its massive hyperscale network, packing more than 20 gigawatts. That is about five times the number of sites and way more power than China’s 200-300 setups with around 7 gigawatts.
This means American AI companies have many backup data centers ready to take over instantly if one gets overloaded or goes offline, so their services almost never slow down or crash. China has far fewer of these backup options, so when one of their big centers has a problem, a lot of AI work can get delayed or stuck. [5] [6]
Small and edge data centers under 10 megawatts: US-3,500 vs China-100-200
For fast, local AI (like the smart features in your phone, maps, or voice assistants), the U.S. has more than 3,500 small “neighborhood” data centers spread across the country, delivering at least 5 gigawatts of power in total.
China has only about 100–200 of these small local centers with very little power between them, because almost all of its 449 data centers are huge centralized facilities far from most users. [7]
The United States maintains a definitive edge is on aggregate computing power.
As of mid-2025, the US share of global AI computing power reached 74 percent, with China at only 14 percent. Aggregate computing power is critical for training new frontier models, supporting the widespread use of AI and new applications of the technology, and exploring new architectures and pathways toward more powerful systems.
We Have Shattered AI Data Center Computing Power Since 2014
In my recent exposé, “US AI Data Centers: Enough Capacity to Watch Every Person on the Planet,” [8] I uncovered former NSA whistleblower information about the capacity of the NSA Utah “Bumblehive” data center completed in 2014:
“They (NSA/Bumblehive) would have plenty of space with five zettabytes to store at least something on the order of 100 years worth of the worldwide communications, phones and emails and stuff like that.”
I go on to explain how the AI data centers built since then are massive compared to the relatively small Bumblehive. Just two of the many examples are:
Amazon Web Services campus in New Carlisle, Indiana: This data center is already operating with 2.2 gigawatts of power. That is about 34 times more power than the old Bumblehive, which used only 65 megawatts.
The QTS data center network owned by Blackstone: This group of centers is already running at 3 gigawatts of power across its sites. That is more than 46 times the power of Bumblehive.
These already built centers are impressive, but even bigger ones are now under construction or in the planning stages. Two examples are:
Meta’s Hyperion campus in Richland Parish, Louisiana: This project is being built much larger than first planned. It will use up to 5 gigawatts of power. That is about 77 times more power than the old Bumblehive, which used only 65 megawatts. It shows a huge leap in both electricity use and AI computing power.
Delta Gigasite in Millard County, Utah: This one is planned for more than 10 gigawatts. That is over 150 times the power of Bumblehive. It will cover thousands of acres with tens of millions of square feet of buildings.
We are already winning.
The only thing we are still losing is the truth.
We already lead the world in data centers, with more than enough computing power to track, trace, and surveil every person on the planet. Yet the push for even more data centers keeps going under the false claim that China is in the lead. At the same time, we continue selling advanced NVIDIA chips to Chinese companies, handing them our greatest technological advantage. I recently wrote about this exact problem here: https://glorytogodstudio.com/commentary/if-the-us-wants-to-win-the-ai-race-why-are-we-selling-china-our-advantage-the-hypocrisy-that-defies-common-sense/. You cannot claim to fight for U.S. leadership while shipping the other side the tools they need to catch up.
Data centers are not the crisis. Selling our best chips to China is. End the sales, stop building Surveillance Centers and put America first.
[1] The US has more data centers than the rest of the world combined : r/2american4you
[2] https://brightlio.com/data-center-stats/#pp-toc-huja89rng0qk-anchor-1
[3] https://www.srgresearch.com/articles/hyperscale-data-center-count-hits-1136-average-size-increases-us-accounts-for-54-of-total-capacity
[4] https://www.visualcapitalist.com/data-center-capacity-around-the-world/
[5] https://www.abiresearch.com/blog/data-centers-by-region-size-company
[6] https://www.mordorintelligence.com/industry-reports/china-data-center-market
[7] https://www.cbre.com/insights/reports/global-data-center-trends-2025
[8] https://glorytogodstudio.com/commentary/us-ai-data-centers-enough-capacity-to-watch-every-person-on-the-planet/