Americans Opposing AI Will Become America’s ‘Biggest Political Crisis,’ Top Investor Says

BreakingBusinessAmericans Opposing AI Will Become America’s ‘Biggest Political Crisis,’ Top Investor SaysByAlicia Park,Reporter. I cover markets and tech.Follow AuthorJun 03, 2026, 03:41pm EDTToplineAmericans opposing artificial intelligence will become the “biggest political crisis” the country faces, Amos Hochstein, former U.S. energy advisor and managing partner at investment firm TWG Global, said at the Forbes Iconoclast Summit on Wednesday. Amos Hochstein addresses the media after meeting with Lebanon's parliament speaker in Beirut on June 18, 2024. (Photo by AFP) (Photo by -/AFP via Getty Images)AFP via Getty ImagesKey FactsHochstein, who served in the Biden administration, said concerns that AI data centers are raising power prices, requiring massive amounts of water, creating pollution and taking jobs, threatens the ability to quickly build the necessary infrastructure for AI. He added the country is building enough capacity to carry data centers through about 2027—maybe 2028—but little beyond that, adding that the constraint isn't raw materials (the U.S. has more natural gas than it can use) but actually building the infrastructure fast enough.Hochstein was joined by Bin Lu, an executive vice president at Schneider Electric, and Sadiq Malik, a managing director at DigitalBridbo speak about how the energy industry is powering the growth of AI by providing energy to data centers. “This is really the first time where energy is becoming the primary constraint of economic growth—not labor, not technology, not capital,” Lu said. if (!window.cnxel) { window.cnxel = {}; window.cnxel.cmd = []; var iframe = document.createElement('iframe'); iframe.style.display = 'none'; iframe.onload = function() { var iframeDoc = iframe.contentWindow.document; var script = iframeDoc.createElement('script'); script.src = '//cd.elements.video/player.js?cid=62cec241-7d09-4462-afc2-f72f8d8ef40a'; script.setAttribute('defer', '1'); script.setAttribute('type', 'text/javascript'...