A pro-energy advocacy group released a report Thursday claiming foreign billionaires have funneled more than $39 million to organizations now pushing Congress to ban new data center construction in the United States. Tax records independently reviewed by HCA confirm a portion of the claim — and show its limits.
The American Energy Institute, led by former Texas state legislator Jason Isaac, identifies Swiss billionaire Hansjörg Wyss as a significant donor to the anti-data center campaign. Wyss is a Swiss citizen whose foundation reported $1.7 billion in assets in its most recent IRS filing. Federal law bars foreign nationals from donating to political candidates or PACs but does not bar them from funding nonprofit advocacy organizations — a gap Congress has debated and not closed. The FEC found Wyss’s direct political donations from 1990 to 2006 unlawful but took no enforcement action after the statute of limitations expired.
IRS Form 990-PF filings and the Wyss Foundation’s own public grant disclosures confirm the foundation gave Americans for Financial Reform Education Fund $3.78 million over three years — $1,272,000 in 2022, $1,255,000 in 2023, and $1,255,000 in 2024. The Sierra Club Foundation received $150,000 from Wyss annually over the same period. Both organizations signed a December 2025 letter to Congress demanding a national moratorium on new data center construction. HCA could not independently verify the $39 million aggregate figure from primary documents. The Wyss Foundation’s filings show no direct payments to 350.org, Indivisible, or GAIA — other organizations named in the AEI report.
The moratorium letter was organized by Food & Water Watch and signed by more than 230 organizations. Sen. Bernie Sanders introduced companion legislation days after it landed. The Trump administration’s AI Action Plan moves in the opposite direction, calling for fast-tracked permits and federal preemption of state AI regulations.
Data centers consumed roughly 4 percent of U.S. electricity in 2024. The Bipartisan Policy Center projects that rising to between 6.7 and 12 percent by 2030 — making the question of who shapes federal data center policy consequential for every electricity ratepayer in the country.
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