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American Made Advocacy: Don’t Build Our AI Economy on Foreign-sourced Components 

Hyperscale data centers are now all over the U.S., from large cities to small towns, and building out the burgeoning AI economy is on the minds of policymakers and legislators at all levels of government. According to Forbes, there are approximately 580 operational hyperscale data centers in the U.S., out of roughly 1,360 worldwide.

These types of AI data centers have been a boon for electrical and construction workers and public utilities. Unfortunately, despite being full of electronics, the American microelectronics industry has not benefited from the massive investments made by the world's largest companies. Instead, the servers for U.S. data centers are sourced where they are most easily obtained. The irony is that most hyperscale data center developers design these servers in America but source them from China or Taiwan.

Throughout the debate about where to put data centers and how many will be needed, it’s clear that an American company building a new data center in the U.S. and just painting an American flag on the building cannot disguise the fact that the tens of thousands of semiconductors, PCBs, and servers needed to operate them are from Asia, and predominantly from China.

One popular solution is to remove China from supply chains through a China Plus One approach, but that is not necessarily the answer. Behind many of the new PCB operations in friendly Asian countries, including Thailand, Vietnam, and Malaysia, Chinese-backed enterprises are often the investors. This moves the risk geographically but does nothing to reduce the potential negative consequences of Chinese influence.

While the U.S. debates policy, the rest of the world is deploying capital at unprecedented levels. But if the U.S. continues to run behind, Taipei, not Topeka, and Phuket, not Philadelphia, will benefit from the rapid rise of AI and the data centers that power them.

Policymakers in Washington should push for reshoring and the restoration of the PCB industry. When people doubt our ability to bring back American microelectronics manufacturing, I remind them it wasn’t that long ago that America was dependent on foreign sources of energy.

Because of innovation and smart industrial policy, we became a net exporter of energy and the engineering prowess to build out infrastructure.

With the right industrial policy and government incentives, we can change our dependency on microelectronics made by our largest global competitor.

The Printed Circuit Board Association of America is working with Congress and government agencies to provide the policy and legislative support that will ensure the American flag on data centers truly represents what’s inside.

This column originally appeared in the September 2026 issue of I-Connect007 Magazine.