Defense bill may bar Chinese equipment in data centers on US military land

A provision in the defense authorization bill could ban private data centers built on US Department of Defense land from using Chinese-made equipment. Companies are reportedly already evaluating sites at military bases for data center development.

Why it matters: This extends US-China tech decoupling from chips themselves to the broader data center supply chain, including racks, networking, and cooling, wherever AI infrastructure touches national-security-adjacent land. It fits a broader pattern of the US favoring targeted rather than blanket restrictions on Chinese AI-related technology.