Blackrock CEO Larry Fink is sounding the recession alarm over proposals to halt new data center construction, warning that America’s artificial intelligence (AI) investment boom has become too important to interrupt. His comments arrive as communities and lawmakers challenge the industry’s electricity consumption, water demands, and rising utility costs. Yet Blackrock is hardly a bystander, with an AI infrastructure partnership targeting as much as $100 billion in investment.

America’s artificial intelligence (AI) boom has become so deeply woven into the economy that stopping new data center construction could help tip the country into recession, according to Blackrock CEO Larry Fink. The warning comes as politicians, environmental organizations and frustrated residents push for restrictions on enormous computing facilities consuming electricity and water.

But there’s another wrinkle. Blackrock itself is helping bankroll the very infrastructure at the center of the controversy, including a partnership targeting up to $100 billion in investment. With trillions in future AI spending at stake, the fight over who foots the bill is heating up.

Speaking to CNBC on Wednesday, Oct. 14, following Blackrock’s third-quarter earnings report, Fink delivered a stark assessment of what a nationwide construction freeze might mean. “If we have a moratorium of some sort in this country, we will be in a recession,” Fink told CNBC, according to a report by CNBC reporter Paulina Likos.

“So much of our economy is based on the buildout of this capex,” he added, referring to capital expenditures supporting artificial intelligence infrastructure.

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