Byron Donalds dismisses ‘performative’ AI critiques, argues again for data centers in Florida

Gubernatorial candidate Byron Donalds continues to argue that Florida needs a “plan” on how to deal with artificial intelligence data centers, making the case that data stored in Florida is safer than foreign countries or Democrat-controlled places.

“I’m not anti-data center. I’m pro-having a plan,” Donalds said at a Turning Point USA event at Florida Gulf Coast University.

“And this is the part of politics where I guess the word now is ‘performative.’ A lot of people like to be performative these days. It’s actually interesting watching it. Have a strategy. Data centers are going to be a function of American life going forward.”

Noting that the students he was talking to all rely heavily on technology, the Republican Congressman from Naples said, “the more you use technology, the more server space that you’re going to need.”

“The more server space that you’re going to need, the more racks that you’re going to have to figure out. In Florida, the question is, are we going to do that here? Are we going to warehouse our data in Northern Virginia? Or are we going to warehouse our data in California? Or we’re going to warehouse our data in India. Or we’re going to warehouse our data in China,” Donalds said.

He continued along this theme.

“I don’t want to warehouse my data in China. I don’t trust them. I don’t want to warehouse my data in India. I don’t want to get into too deep of a foreign policy conversation, but let’s be very clear. India has to deal with Russia. They share a border. I don’t want my data there,” Donalds said.

“And to be honest, I don’t trust the Democrats in Virginia. I don’t want my data there. I think when it comes to technology, AI and everything else, Florida should lead. We use common sense. We know how to do this thing. We should lead, not play cute, on social media, not just say no without a planning a strategy.”

Leading the Future, a super PAC launched by OpenAI co-founder Greg Brockman, 8VC founder Joe Lonsdale and venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, announced it was putting $5 million in support of Donalds and a broader educational effort on the benefits AI will have on Florida’s economic future.

This comes as Gov. Ron DeSantis and others looking to succeed him have argued against AI and its perceived excesses.