The world is on the verge of a technological revolution unlike anything we’ve ever seen. Artificial intelligence is a defining force that will shape military power, economic growth, the future of medicine, surveillance, and the global balance of freedom versus authoritarianism — and whoever leads in AI will set the rules for the 21st century.
The stakes could not be higher. And yet while America debates regulations and climate policy, China is already racing ahead, fueled by energy abundance.
Energy abundance must be understood as a core national policy imperative — not just as a side issue for environmental debates.
When people talk about China’s strategy in the AI race, they usually point to state subsidies and investments. China’s command-economy structure allows the Chinese Communist Party to control the direction of the country’s production. For example, in recent years, the CCP has poured billions of dollars into quantum computing.
But another, more important story is at play: China is powering its AI push with a historic surge in energy production.
China has been constructing new coal plants at a staggering speed, accounting for 95% of new coal plants built worldwide in 2023. China just recently broke ground on what is being dubbed the “world’s largest hydropower dam.” These and other energy projects have resulted in massive growth in energy production in China in the past few decades. In fact, production climbed from 1,356 terawatt hours in 2000 to an incredible 10,073 terawatt hours in 2024.
Beijing understands what too many American policymakers ignore: Modern economies and advanced AI models are energy monsters. Training cutting-edge systems requires millions of kilowatt hours of power. Keeping AI running at scale demands a resilient and reliable grid.
China isn’t wringing its hands about carbon targets or ESG metrics. It’s doing what great powers do when they intend to dominate: They make sure nothing — especially energy scarcity — stands in their way.
Meanwhile, in America, most of our leaders have embraced climate alarmism over common sense. We’ve strangled coal, stalled nuclear, and made it nearly impossible to build new power infrastructure. Subsidized green schemes may win applause at Davos, but they don’t keep the lights on. And they certainly can’t fuel the data centers that AI requires.
The demand for energy from the AI industry shows no sign of slowing. Developers are already bypassing traditional utilities to build their own power plants, a sign of just how immense the pressure on the grid has become. That demand is also driving up energy costs for everyday citizens who now compete with data centers for electricity.
Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, has even spoken of plans to spend “trillions” on new data center construction. Morgan Stanley projects that global investment in AI-related infrastructure could reach $3 trillion by 2028.
Already, grid instability is a growing problem. Blackouts, brownouts, and soaring electricity prices are becoming a feature of American life. Now imagine layering the immense demand of AI on top of a fragile system designed to appease activists rather than strengthen a nation.
In the AI age, a weak grid equals a weak country. And weakness is something that authoritarian rivals like Beijing are counting on.
Donald Trump has already done a tremendous amount of work to reorient America toward energy dominance. In the first days of his administration, he released detailed plans explicitly focused on “unleashing American energy,” signaling that the message is being taken seriously at the highest levels.
Over the past several months, Trump has signed numerous executive orders to bolster domestic energy production and end subsidies for unreliable energy sources. Most recently, the Environmental Protection Agency has moved to rescind the Endangerment Finding — a potentially massive blow to the climate agenda that has hamstrung energy production in the United States since the Obama administration.
These steps deserve a lot of credit and support. However, for America to remain competitive in the AI race, we must not only continue this momentum but ramp it up wherever possible. Energy abundance must be understood as a core national policy imperative — not just as a side issue for environmental debates.
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Silicon Valley cannot out-innovate a blackout. However, Americans can’t code their way around an empty power plant. If China has both the AI models and the energy muscle to run them, while America ties itself in regulatory knots, the future belongs to China.
This is about more than technology. This is about the world we want to live in. An authoritarian China, armed with both AI supremacy and energy dominance, would have the power to bend the global order toward censorship, surveillance, and control.
If we want America to lead the future of artificial intelligence, then we must act now. The AI race cannot be won by Silicon Valley alone. It will be won only if America moves full speed ahead with abundant domestic energy production, climate realism, and universal access to affordable and reliable energy for all.
Foreign agents were able to penetrate the systems of the U.S. agency responsible for maintaining and designing nuclear weapons.
The National Nuclear Security Administration, which operates under the United States Department of Energy, was compromised along with other sectors of the department.
According to Bloomberg, while the NNSA is semiautonomous, it still holds the responsibility of producing and dismantling nuclear arms in the United States. This makes the intrusion even more concerning when considering the origins of those who penetrated the system.
'Microsoft is aware of active attacks targeting on-premises SharePoint Server customers.'
The Energy Department revealed in an email to Bloomberg that an "exploitation of a Microsoft SharePoint zero-day vulnerability began affecting the Department of Energy" on Friday, July 18.
The email continued, "The department was minimally impacted due to its widespread use of the Microsoft M365 cloud and very capable cybersecurity systems. A very small number of systems were impacted. All impacted systems are being restored."
While the government entity did not expose information about the source of the intrusion, Microsoft revealed on its own blog that it has identified multiple hostiles working on behalf of a foreign entity.
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In a blog post published Tuesday, Microsoft explained that vulnerabilities in their SharePoint servers have been targeted by three "Chinese nation-state actors."
"Linen Typhoon and Violet Typhoon" were the first two Chinese groups identified by Microsoft, the blog explained. Microsoft then said, "In addition, we have observed another China-based threat actor, tracked as Storm-2603, exploiting these vulnerabilities."
Microsoft noted in a separate blog post that "on-premises" customers have been under attack as a result of the hack as well.
"Microsoft is aware of active attacks targeting on-premises SharePoint Server customers by exploiting vulnerabilities partially addressed by the July Security Update," the company wrote.
Although an anonymous source told Bloomberg that no sensitive or classified information was known to have been compromised in the attack, the outlet also reported that the breach was only possible due to a 2020 hack on software manufactured by IT company SolarWinds. That attack swept up a trove of Department of Justice email credentials.
This means that foreign agents have been working against the United States, using the same compromised data for nearly five years.
RELATED: DOJ email accounts compromised in SolarWinds hack attributed to Russians
The 2020 hack saw the DOJ attribute the malicious intrusions to Russia, with about 3% of its Microsoft Office 365 email accounts potentially compromised.
At the time, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the National Security Agency, and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency released a joint statement saying the work "indicates that an Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) actor, likely Russian in origin, is responsible for most or all of the recently discovered, ongoing cyber compromises of both government and non-governmental networks."
Microsoft has advised users to download the latest security updates for the affected programs, as hackers have stolen sign-in credentials, usernames, passwords, codes, and tokens as part of previous attacks, according to Bloomberg.
Blaze News reached out to the Department of Defense regarding any possible exploitations they may be concerned about but did not receive a reply.
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