WASHINGTON, D.C. — AI Infrastructure Coalition Co-Chairs, Kyrsten Sinema and Garret Graves, appeared on CNBC’s Squawk on the Street to discuss AI infrastructure, the state of AI investment, and the race with China.
In response to misinformation on the impact of AI data centers and similar AI infrastructure, Co-Chair Graves said the following: “Berkeley Labs came out with a study saying that you’re not having an impact on consumers. Southern Company came out and said they would not allow consumers to pay higher rates. Microsoft came out and made an announcement saying this will not have an adverse impact on consumers. So, it’s that type of misinformation, those types of commitments and investments that we’re working to make sure that we get in place.”
In response to the same question, Co-Chair Sinema said the following: “Well, you know, unfortunately, the airwaves—and this is no surprise—are dominated by misinformation. But the reality is, is that these companies are working hard to ensure that we’re increasing domestic energy production. And that’s why we’re working so closely with groups like the National Energy Dominance Council (NEDC) and relying on companies like Microsoft, who just several weeks ago, made a major announcement ensuring that all of their AI build out is self-funded, so that consumers do not bear the burden of increased energy costs.”
On the topic of the AI race with China, Co-Chair Graves said the following: “Look, this is all at the end of the day is about people. Senator Sinema opened up this whole segment talking about how this is either going to be the United States or China. Look, if we’re worried about jobs, if we’re worried about impacts on people, if we’re worried about AI being a positive development, it needs to be US-centric. And that’s really what we’re focused on, is making sure that we have U.S. companies, U.S.-centric-based AI employment opportunities here that benefit our nation, our economy, our people. And so, look, that’s what this is about. Does it include the participation of local and state governments as well as the federal government? Absolutely it does, and there needs to be input by all of these entities. But we also need to recognize that this is absolutely critical. It is a race. We saw when DeepSeek was out there, we saw some of the misinformation that that AI tool from China was putting out there, saying bad things about democracy, freedom of speech, freedom of religion, human rights. Those aren’t the types of values that we want to proliferate, that we want to advance or support long-term.”
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