Betsey Hale said her instinct normally would be to get out her tinfoil hat when it comes to conspiracy theories that suggest foreign dark money could be flowing into American advocacy groups and juicing up opposition campaigns to data and artificial intelligence centers.
But lately, the CEO of Cheyenne LEADS said she isn't so sure there isn’t something to the idea.
For 20 years, data centers have been part of the Cheyenne landscape with relatively little fanfare, she told Cowboy State Daily.
Hale ticked through a relatively long list of longtime Cheyenne business residents that includes Echostar, Greenhouse Data, Microsoft, the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) supercomputer and more.
“In our county for nearly 20 years … no one has complained about data centers until about the last month and a half,” Hale said.
Now, Laramie County has a petition circulating that calls for a moratorium on new data centers while a massive proposed man camp to house data center workers is drawing complaints from Cheyenne residents.
Organizers of the petition have told Cowboy State Daily they have already collected hundreds of signatures in less than two weeks, and they’re shooting for 7,000.
There was also a recent full-page ad in the Wyoming Tribune Eagle that said over and over again in all capital letters, “NO MORE DATA CENTERS” in red and black letters.
The ad claimed it was paid for by “Citizens of Wyoming.”
“But there’s no such organization as Citizens of Wyoming,” Hale said. “We looked it up, because we wanted to validate who actually paid for the ad. So, I do feel like there might be a little bit of subterfuge coming from some of these.”
That’s where the theories about the potential for foreign dark money come into play.
“This is not something someone from Wyoming put out there,” Hale said shebelieves. “So, we have to begin to wonder if some of these conspiracy theories that people have about Wyoming being flooded with dark money that’s anti-data is true, because this drives data centers to go to other countries.”
Real Opposition, Real Foreign Influence
Hale doesn’t doubt that real opposition exists independent of foreign dark money.
But she questions whether the divisions are being exacerbated by foreign interests amid an artificial intelligence race that’s been deemed critical to both America’s economy and its national security.
She’s not alone in asking these questions.
U.S. Rep. Harriet Hageman, R-Wyoming, told Cowboy State Daily this is an issue her office is monitoring.
“Foreign dark money has been seeking to sow chaos in the U.S. for decades,” she said. “Whether it’s foreign ownership of American land, bankrolling leftist climate conspiracies to derail U.S. energy or interfering in our elections, foreign influence has no limits.
"So, it would not be surprising to learn dark money opposition to data centers is occurring, too.”
Cheyenne attorney and former state GOP Chairman Matt Micheli said he started digging around after he saw a flood of blatantly inaccurate information in various social media posts about data centers.
“I’ve just been curious about what happened,” he said. “Why all of a sudden is all of this misinformation spreading so quickly? It ticked my ‘Spidey’ senses up on what’s happening.”
What Micheli found was a study by American Energy Institute, a nonprofit group that advocates for reliable and affordable American energy through fossil fuels, not a government agency. Its conclusions have not been independently verified in this story.
The group traced at least $39 million in dark money from foreign countries that has poured into American advocacy groups campaigning against artificial intelligence infrastructure, even as that infrastructure is deemed critical to the nation’s security.
American Energy Institute’s figure was compiled by reviewing various tax filings and annual reports, as well as grant databases, and highlights 12 separate advocacy organizations opposing data centers that have received foreign funding.
“This dark-money flow isn’t part of a spontaneous grassroots movement,” American Energy Institute’s report concludes. “It’s a coordinated campaign being financed by foreign donors, operating through a network of advocacy organizations, (with) the goal of influencing local and national policy in ways that prioritize ideological agendas over the United States’ actual interests.”
That money includes funding that’s bolstering campaigns demanding Congress halt expansion of the artificial intelligence industry.
“It’s an existential threat to our economic and national security,” American Energy Institute concluded. “Data centers are bringing new jobs, tax revenue, and innovation hubs to local communities, making any delays or restrictions costly on multiple fronts.”
Are Past Fracking Fights Prologue?
Micheli has seen something like this happen before, in the oil and gas industry.
“This reminds me a lot of those fracking debates,” he said. “Some kind of legitimate questions came up, and then (foreign adversaries) just poured all this money and fuel into all this opposition, because our ability to create energy here is detrimental to Russia and China.”
Like Hale, Micheli also believes there are people in Cheyenne and other Wyoming communities who are genuinely upset about data centers and who have legitimate questions.
What he thinks the dark foreign money is doing is leveraging that to heighten divisions in the country to try and slow America’s progress.
“What Russia and China are so good at is tying into emotions and getting people riled up,” he said. “And frankly, manipulating people to get them to believe things that just aren’t true.”
That has Micheli calling for people in Wyoming to hone in on real information instead of social media posts full of misinformation from strangers or even anonymous people online.
“Let’s don’t believe the things you’re reading on the internet or on your Facebook algorithms,” he said. “Let’s sit down and talk, because modern data centers don’t even compare to what data centers were doing in the early 2000s.
"It’s a different world now. The technology has completely changed.”
Hale, too, has been seeing in lots of Facebook groups promote what she calls persistently incorrect claims that data centers are spiking power rates and will gulp down all the water.
When she follows many of those profiles to their origins, the profile has often been removed or leads to a page with the name of a person who turns out not to exist.
“We actually looked up some of the names of some of the people who were saying negative things about me and Cheyenne LEADS,” she said. “And they weren’t even real people. They don’t exist. It’s a chatbot or something getting into these social media streams.”
Not A Crazy Idea
Exploiting something that’s already simmering is a specialty of foreign adversaries like China and Russia, Americans for Prosperity in Wyoming Director James Halverson told Cowboy State Daily.
“I absolutely don’t think it’s a crazy idea,” he said. “Maybe the difference I’ve heard, the difference between conspiracy theories and fact is about six months.”
Halverson said he’s seen foreign groups from China coming in to buy up a lot of farm ground.
“I came over from South Dakota,” he said. “And I mean, the amount of agricultural ground that the Chinese were buying up there was staggering.”
Halverson said his research found hundreds of thousands of acres were getting locked up by Chinese buyers.
“Why wouldn’t (China) be doing that in the AI race?” he said. “They’ve been buying up a lot of farm ground around military bases, and they’ve been trying to influence our political elections, political cycles, along with Russia.
That sort of behavior, buying up land near a military base, has happened in Wyoming.
In 2024, the Biden administration forced a Chinese-owned cryptocurrency mining operation to vacate and sell a property that was about 1 mile from F.E. Warren Air Force Base.
“Our big race with AI is with China, right?” Halverson continued. “So why would they not be trying to come here in a covert way and trying to influence (that)?”
Skeptics Say Opposition Is Local
Sen. Cale Case, R-Lander, meanwhile, isn’t buying the idea that foreign adversaries are amping up opposition to data centers.
Or if they are, he thinks its effectiveness will be limited.
“Hundreds of data centers are going up across the country, driven by the economic interests of a myriad of actors,” he said. “I don’t see how a foreign adversary can benefit from slight modification of the end result in a few locations. It’s like trying to stop the tide.”
There are many legitimate reasons to oppose data centers, he added.
“The opponents don’t need to be dismissed by those who accuse them of collaborating with invisible, hostile adversaries,” he said. “I think Cheyenne LEADS is just trying to deflect some heat from themselves.”
Heather Madrid, meanwhile, who is among those circulating a petition in Laramie County calling for a moratorium on more data centers, called the idea “ridiculous.”
“I’m sure that probably exists,” she said. “But that’s not what’s happening here. And I just don’t like this idea that’s being presented that local residents are being influenced by propaganda and believing everything we see on social media.
"We’re being treated like we’re stupid,” Madrid added. “But really, this community is full of professionals and experts who deserve to be listened to just as much as Meta and Microsoft.”
Madrid’s complaints are about relevant, local issues, she said. They haven’t come from some dark well in China.
She wants to see more transparency in the process, so that residents know what data centers are coming in where, instead of finding out about it after it’s a done deal.
Madrid also feels the narrative around data centers has been overly “rosy” when it comes to power and water use, as well as other potential impacts to land use, housing, and access to service industries such as plumbing and electricians, both of whom are in short supply already.
Stranger Things Have Happened
Hale, Micheli, and Halverson all acknowledge tensions were already simmering when it comes to data centers, and they don’t doubt the sincerity of people like Madrid.
But they also don’t put it past foreign adversaries to use existing tensions to exploit things that will be to their benefit, like trying to derail the buildout of artificial intelligence centers.
Stranger things have already happened, Micheli said, recalling a Russian operation in Houston documented by national media after a 2016 protest turned violent.
According to the report, it all began when two innocuous-seeming Facebook communities appeared and were slowly, over time, radicalized by Russian agents into full-blown protests that ultimately turned violent.
Micheli said the goal there was simply to drive more American division and dissension.
“They created this Facebook group called Heart of Texas and it was like, ‘We love Texas, we love football, we love barbecue,’” he said. “And they organically grew this group of just, pro-Texans.”
They also simultaneously set up a pro-Muslim group for newcomers to America.
“And that was just like, ‘Hey, we’re all new here. We’re just trying to find like-minded people and people of the Muslim faith,’” Micheli said. “So, they grew them both organically, and both of these groups started off only positive, only good.
"We’re just bringing people together over the years. I mean they played the long game.”
Eventually, the operatives started adding in some new messages to the Texas group, nudging it in a less than wholesome direction.
“They started saying, ‘Hey, these Muslims are coming. These immigrants are coming. They’re destroying the Texas we love,’” Micheli said. “And slowly they built this anti-Muslim sentiment over there.”
At the same time in the Muslim group, the Russian agents started highlighting instances of discrimination and people getting harmed.
“So, they built up hate in both groups,” Micheli said. “And then they planned a protest at a mosque in Houston and a counter-protest by the other group and got them together and it erupted in violence.”
That was all real people, Micheli added, with real concerns, real emotions and real anger.
“But it was all designed and organized and manipulated by Russians,” he said. “And it’s just fascinating how much of that is happening all over the country in different things.
The Russians don’t care, right?” Micheli added. “They’re not pro-Muslim or pro-Texas. All they care about is making us hate each other.”
Renée Jean can be reached at renee@cowboystatedaily.com.
