America is falling behind. We need to compete on nuclear energy and artificial intelligence.

The race for global energy and AI dominance is real, and America is falling behind. While we tie ourselves in ideology and red tape, China is outbuilding and out-deploying the energy and computing capacity needed to overtake the United States. According to President Trump’s Artificial Intelligence Czar, David Sacks, “To remain the leading economic and military power, the United States must win the AI race.” Indeed, the White House has identified Chinese dominance in artificial intelligence as a critical national security threat. If we don’t act immediately, we will never catch up.

America used to be the world’s builder. We split the atom, constructed the Hoover Dam, and put men on the moon. We invented fracking and designed the most powerful nuclear reactors on Earth. We led the globe in computing and deployed infrastructure faster and better than any other country. As President Ronald Reagan once said, “We create the future, and the world follows us into tomorrow.” We used to do hard things, but today we struggle to approve a single power plant. What happened?

While we oppose projects, China is building. China currently ranks fourth globally in total data centers, with 449, and is projected to construct thousands more by 2030. According to reports, China Telecom’s Inner Mongolia campus is the largest in the world, spanning 10.7 million square feet, designed for AI, semiconductors, and cloud computing.

The key to China’s computing rise is power. While Chinese-backed NGOs tell the United States to “use less energy,” China is generating more—pairing its industrial rise with dedicated, around-the-clock power. In recent years, China has broken ground on nearly 95,000 megawatts of new coal capacity, with over 60,000 megawatts more permitted by 2027—more than the entire output of France.

A single hyperscale data center for AI can require as much as 100 MW or more. Over the next decade, experts project a double-digit surge in national electricity demand—driven largely by data centers, which are expected to consume between 7–12% of total U.S. power by 2028. That’s more than the entire energy consumption of Texas alone and like building the last 40 years of energy infrastructure in just 10. As President Trump plainly stated at an AI summit in Washington, “You’re going to need more electricity than any human beings ever.”

Yet instead of expanding capacity, we’ve been shutting down reliable baseload plants like coal, hydro, and nuclear, putting our grid at risk. This is a mistake. To support around-the-clock demand and fuel our economic resurgence, we need sources that can deliver abundant, high-density, 24/7 power.

America’s top industry leaders know there is only one energy source capable of providing the power we need to keep up: nuclear. That’s why China is racing to build 150 new nuclear reactors by 2035, targeting 200 gigawatts—more than the rest of the world combined.

Recently, China announced the deployment of the world’s first thorium-fueled molten salt reactor—the TMSR-LF1, a 2 MW meltdown-proof plant that refuels without turning off. These compact, factory-built reactors can deliver hundreds of megawatts of clean, reliable power in a fraction of the footprint—making them essential to the energy-AI arms race.

It should have been us. We pioneered this design in the 1960s but shelved it for political and bureaucratic reasons. Now, China operates the reactor, while American developers are trapped in regulatory limbo. Not one molten salt reactor has received NRC approval for commercial deployment in the U.S. We need to utilize this technology. As U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright recently said, “We need to get shovels in the ground and next-generation small modular reactors happening.”

Our decline isn’t due to a lack of ingenuity. It’s the result of regulatory sabotage from within. Across the country, opposition to new infrastructure has become endemic—whether it’s banning data centers in cities or blocking power plants in rural counties. Years of ideological conditioning have made Americans view progress as pollution, development as destruction, and industry as intrusion—making us hostile to growth and obstructing our ability to build.

If America isn’t the one setting the global energy standard, someone else will—and it won’t be in our interest. President Trump put it bluntly, “We will not apologize for becoming successful again.” “Together, we’re reclaiming America’s proud heritage as a nation of builders and a nation that gets things done.” We must get out of our own way and let our workers and innovators build again.

Arizona is ready to lead. As the United States turns inward to refocus on increasing its sphere of influence in the Western Hemisphere, Arizona will play a critical role in securing and advancing the nation’s future economic and technological dominance. We have the land, infrastructure, and workforce ready to deploy the next generation of advanced nuclear reactors and power our country’s growing AI economy.

With new advanced nuclear reactors, we can pave the way to a brighter economic future, achieve American energy dominance, and restore the vision of American exceptionalism we once held. All we have to do is build.

Michael Carbone is the majority leader of the Arizona House of Representatives. Follow him on X at @MichaelCarbone.