CSET

Espionage, AI, and the Risks of Strategic Overreaction

Allegations involving Nvidia’s chief executive have renewed scrutiny of Chinese intelligence collection and U.S. controls on advanced AI chips. Meanwhile, local resistance to data centers—a sentiment that’s been linked to PRC influence campaigns—raises a different challenge to the infrastructure supporting American AI leadership. Although these episodes are not evidence of a coordinated Chinese campaign, together they illustrate how external security threats and domestic policy choices can shape the U.S.–China AI competition—and why responses must be grounded in evidence.