A significant number of jobs are on their way to rural states as the AI boom has prompted the need for more raw materials and electricity, according to Build American AI executive director Nathan Leamer.
Leamer explained how the difference between the first internet boom and the relatively new AI boom has impacted the job market at Breitbart News’s “Energy Dominance and AI” policy event in Washington, DC, on Monday that also featured Interior Secretary and Chairman of the National Energy Dominance Council Doug Burgum and Sen. Dave McCormick (R-PA).
“The difference between AI and the Silicon Valley boom is a lot of the Web 2.0 internet companies — we know are really centered around Silicon Valley, right? They are all kind of centered in California,” he said. “The exciting thing about AI is the diffusion of this technology in communities around the country, and what AI enables is us to bring jobs back into the reindustrializing of middle America.”
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Build American AI is a six-month-old nonprofit organization that cuts through the myths about artificial intelligence in order to drive home the point to lawmakers that the emerging technology can be leveraged for good. The group’s website states that its mission is to “advance pro-innovation policies that build trust in technology, boost America’s competitiveness, and ensure U.S. leadership in the transformative technologies of tomorrow.”
“I read this great article by a CEO of a travel logistics company in Nashville, Tennessee,” Leamer continued. “They explained it takes 30,000 truckloads of copper and concrete and steel to build just one data center that also employs thousands upon hundreds of thousands of employees, electricians, builders, construction workers, plumbers, et cetera.”
Nathan Leamer, Executive Director of Build American AI, speaks with Breitbart News Washington Bureau Chief Matthew Boyle (L) at Breitbart News’s “Energy Dominance and AI” policy event in Washington, DC, on Monday, May 11, 2026. (Matthew Perdie/Breitbart News)
Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, the headlining speaker at the Breitbart News event, also highlighted the need to beat China and other countries in the “AI arms race” by cutting through figurative red tape.
According to Burgum, the Chinese “are not spending years caught up in court, in litigation over a bunch of, say, bureaucratic rules — not even laws.”
When President Donald Trump signed an executive order in December calling for a national policy framework on AI regulation instead of allowing states to push “onerous” laws, Leamer told Breitbart News that the action “makes it clear that creating a coherent AI national framework is a top priority.”
“Instead of 50 competing rulebooks, the Administration is laying out a clear federal policy roadmap that will accelerate deployment and provide the clarity that entrepreneurs and consumers have been asking for,” the AI advocate said in a statement.
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Leamer added that Trump’s “balanced approach” would allow for states to protect their consumers and address localized concerns without compromising on a clear national standard that applies to everyone.
The framework itself, released in March with the goal of getting it codified into law by Congress, requests that lawmakers overrule and preempt state AI laws that the White House believes would “impose undue burdens,” and instead foster a “minimally burdensome” federal regulatory environment.
Under the White House’s framework, the Trump administration stated that children and minors would be better protected from harm while AI innovators would be able to move forward without having to navigate a patchwork of differing state laws on the technology.
“With smart leadership, the innovations of the next century will be defined by American builders and made to American standards,” Leamer stated at the time. “For too long, the conversation around AI has been dominated by fear and negativity.”
“This proposal marks a turning point. It represents a bold and optimistic vision that sets basic safety standards, protects Americans and our children, embraces innovation, empowers American builders, and positions the United States to lead with confidence,” he continued. “If we seize this moment, America will lead this new era of growth, opportunity, and prosperity.”
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Olivia Rondeau is a politics reporter for Breitbart News based in Washington, DC. Find her on X/Twitter and Instagram.