Trump Defends Data Centers At Ohio Rally Amid Backlash, Warns ‘They’ll Go To China’ If US Pulls Back — 'So Much Money To Be Made'

According to a report by The New York Times, Trump was addressing voters during a campaign in Ohio for Senator Jon Husted.

• Trump dismissed concerns about the industry Saturday, framing data centers as an economic opportunity for states such as Ohio.
• He also praised a bill backed by Republican Senator Jon Husted that seeks to address concerns over rising electricity costs linked to large power users.
• Trump has previously taken an even harder line against critics, saying communities that reject data centers risk becoming “backwards and poor.”

President Donald Trump on Saturday defended the U.S. data center boom at an Ohio rally, warning that pulling back on the massive facilities powering the artificial intelligence industry would risk sending the investment as well as jobs to China.

According to a report by The New York Times, Trump was addressing voters during a campaign in Ohio for Senator Jon Husted.

Trump Says Data Centers Mean ‘So Much Money’ For Ohio

Trump has repeatedly argued that the U.S. must rapidly expand AI infrastructure to maintain its lead over China. He again dismissed concerns about the industry Saturday, framing data centers as an economic opportunity for states such as Ohio.

“Look, there’s so much money to be made for Ohio, you can’t just turn them off. They’ll go to China,” he said.

Trump also praised a bill backed by Husted that seeks to address concerns over rising electricity costs linked to large power users. Democrats blocked the measure in a procedural vote last week, with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer calling it “toothless.”

The U.S. President has previously taken an even harder line against critics, saying communities that reject data centers risk becoming “backwards and poor.”

“The only reason that communities throughout the U.S.A. should not want Data Centers is if they want to end up being backwards and poor. If they want to be successful and rich, with far lower taxes and jobs all over the place, let Data Reign,” he said in a Truth Social post in August.

Trump, AI Leaders Sign Voluntary Safety Pact

This comes days after Trump and several leaders from the AI industry signed a pact to establish voluntary standards for AI.

Nvidia Corp. (NVDA) CEO Jensen Huang, Meta Platforms Inc. (META) CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Tesla Inc. (TSLA) and Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SPCX) CEO Elon Musk, Anthropic’s Dario Amodei, OpenAI’s Greg Brockman, and others were also present at the event.

Trump also reiterated his support for rapid expansion of data centers in the country, noting that technology companies would work to make local communities around data centers “happy” about their construction.

“These big, powerful, very rich, very smart companies are going to be making massive contributions to communities," Trump said, according to a report by Reuters.

During the after-hours session on Friday, the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY), which tracks the S&P 500 index, rose 0.03%; the Invesco QQQ Trust ETF (QQQ) was flat; and the SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average ETF Trust (DIA) rose 0.12%. Retail sentiment on Stocktwits toward the S&P 500 ETF was in the ‘extremely bullish’ territory at the time of writing.

The iShares U.S. Technology ETF (IYW) is up 35% year-to-date, while the Global X Artificial Intelligence & Technology ETF (AIQ) is up 30%.

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