The Lever: “Mike Rogers holds millions in AI-related investments while backing Donald Trump’s push to fast-track the infrastructure fueling the industry.”

LANSING — According to new reporting from The Lever, corrupt multimillionaire Mike Rogers “holds millions in tech investments that could benefit from the data center boom, giving him a personal financial stake as he backs President Donald Trump’s push to fast-track artificial intelligence infrastructure.”

While Rogers backs the White House’s plan to streamline data center permitting, and the venture capital firm Rogers advises is a member of an industry group lobbying to “gut environmental reviews” for major AI construction projects, the report concludes that the expansion of data centers in Michigan “could deliver big returns for Rogers’ investment portfolio.”

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The Lever: The Senate Candidate Who Could Get Rich Off Data Centers

• Michigan Republican Senate candidate former Rep. Mike Rogers holds millions in tech investments that could benefit from the data center boom, giving him a personal financial stake as he backs President Donald Trump’s push to fast-track artificial intelligence infrastructure. The revelation comes as data centers emerge as a major election issue nationwide, including in battleground Michigan.

• According to a Lever analysis of Rogers’ most recent financial disclosure, the former U.S. representative holds between $1.7 million and $2.6 million in companies that stand to benefit from tech-friendly policies and a streamlined permitting process for AI-related developments. 

• Rogers also holds between $100,001 and $250,000 worth of Blackstone Real Estate Income Trust, a private real estate investment trust that has been rapidly investing in data centers. The sector now makes up 29 percent of the trust’s portfolio, up from 1 percent in 2020. Blackstone is currently helping develop a massive 1.6 million square-foot data center near Ann Arbor, Michigan, worth $16 billion.

• Rogers, a former FBI agent, and his wife, former lobbyist Kristi Clemens Rogers, furthermore own stock and investments in a variety of tech companies that are leveraging AI to build their businesses. These include cybersecurity firms Qualys, Inc., NowSecure, and Constella Intelligence, as well as quantum computing firm D-Wave Quantum, Inc.

• Finally, Rogers owns stock in and serves as a board advisor for venture capital firm Forgepoint Capital, where his wife also serves on the Advisory Council. Forgepoint is invested in at least 49 tech companies that use AI, and Rogers is invested in two Forgepoint private equity funds. 

• Rogers’ campaign did not respond to a request for comment.

• Rogers’ 2024 financial disclosure noted that, at the time, he owned non-public stock in several AI-related companies backed by Forgepoint. Those holdings are not listed on his most recent disclosure forms. 

• “Mike Rogers has done a good job of cashing in on his past influence, but I also think that some of the cashing in has been with an eye toward his potential future prominence,” said Jeff Hauser, founder and executive director of the Revolving Door Project, a government watchdog group.

• As Rogers faces off against Abdul El-Sayed for a U.S. Senate seat in November, the former congressman has raised nearly $150,000 in campaign cash from a number of individuals with AI and data center investments. Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, staunch Trump supporters and investors in multiple AI companies, together gave $14,000 to Rogers’ campaign, and seven executives from private equity firm Blackstone donated $34,500, disclosures show.

• A Lucrative AI-Fueled Retirement

• Just before retiring from Congress in 2015, Rogers backed a plan that would allow the National Security Agency to conduct warrantless subpoenas of Americans’ phone records, an issue that remains contentious today. His retirement came as a surprise, but Republican aides told The New York Times that Rogers was seeking a more lucrative career than what the public sector could offer.

• He seemingly found that when he entered the venture capital industry, where he has helped steer investments toward cybersecurity and AI companies. Months after retiring from Congress, Rogers joined the advisory council of Trident Capital Cybersecurity, which became Forgepoint in 2018.

• In June, the Detroit Metro Times reported that six of the companies Forgepoint is invested in — Attivo Networks, Bayshore Networks, BehavioSec, CyberCube Analytics, NowSecure, and ReversingLabs — received more than $6.1 million in federal contracts while Rogers served as a board advisor to the firm. According to his financial disclosures, in 2024, Rogers was invested in the six companies, all of which use AI in some form.

• Rogers has raked in $148,000 from donors invested in the AI and data center industry, disclosures show. Private equity firm Elliott Investment Management CEO Paul Singer, a major Trump supporter who has been involved in conservative activist Leonard Leo’s dark money operations, donated $7,000 to Rogers’ campaign. Elliott is invested in data center company Equinix, which operates 270 facilities globally.

• Rogers’ campaign has also received $7,000 from Gerald Beeson, chief operating officer of the hedge fund Citadel, which last month bought the bulk of another hedge fund’s failed AI investments; $7,000 from Lawrence Golub, CEO of Golub Capital, whose family office partnered with a Saudi firm to launch a $50 million AI investment fund; and $17,615 from executives of venture capital firm Paradigm, which is heavily invested in AI, cryptocurrencies, and robotics. He also received $6,950 from Forgepoint cofounder Donald Dixon.

• Backing The Data Center Boom

• In March, Rogers endorsed Trump’s newly released “National Policy Framework for Artificial Intelligence,” which includes plans to speed up federal permitting for data centers and other AI infrastructure. […] Rogers, echoing the Trump administration, told Michigan news outlets that he wants to make the permitting process easier for AI companies, and supports localities choosing if they want data centers.

• […] Forgepoint is a member of the National Venture Capital Association, an industry lobbying group that has spent more than $4.4 million since 2025 lobbying the White House, Congress, and other regulators on “artificial Intelligence policy issues,” and other matters, disclosures show. The association also wants to streamline federal permitting rules for AI infrastructure, as well as overhaul a crucial environmental protection rule.

• […] The group generally states that it is in favor of “maintaining important environmental safeguards,” but has said little about the environmental impacts of AI and data centers. Rather, it supports “modernizing [National Environmental Policy Act] review,” a core demand from the AI industry to gut environmental reviews for major AI construction projects.

• In June 2025, the association wrote to Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) that it supported a 10-year moratorium on state and local AI regulations, stating that limiting local regulatory efforts is “imperative for the federal government to take an active role in harnessing the startup ecosystem to ensure the U.S. remains at the forefront of global AI innovation.”

• Rogers has been criticized for his previous votes protecting the oil and gas industry.

• […] If the AI industry expands, it could deliver big returns for Rogers’ investment portfolio. But it also poses additional risks for Michiganders, who have already been inundated with environmental havoc unleashed by the auto, steel, and petrochemical industries throughout the 20th century

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