America’s AI ambitions threaten Indigenous lands in the Philippines

This is a story about a US-backed AI and semiconductor project in the Philippines, not a home energy upgrade topic, so there isn't guidance here about rebates or retrofits for your own house.

The short version: the US and the Philippines are planning a 4,000-acre high-tech manufacturing hub in Central Luzon, part of a larger US effort called Pax Silica to build AI and chip supply chains outside China. The hub would sit inside New Clark City, on land that overlaps with ancestral territory claimed by thousands of Aeta Indigenous people, some of whom say officials have already told them to leave. A final US-Philippine agreement is expected to be signed in November.

The project's power needs are large. Officials estimate it would need about 3 gigawatts to run, and if it operated around the clock that works out to roughly 26 terawatt-hours a year — close to what the Philippines' entire service sector used in all of 2024. Officials say it would be mostly solar-powered given the country's sunny climate, and would also use 16 million to 24 million gallons of water a day, drawn from rainwater, with capacity to scale up much higher. Critics worry about where that solar land and water will come from, especially during the dry season when farmers need irrigation, and about waste from planned mineral-processing facilities. Protests over the project turned confrontational in Manila, with activists reporting injuries and arrests.