New York Subway Hero Daniel Penny Joins Social Media With Vociferous Defense Of Data Centers

Interesting big tech, daniel penny, data centers, new york city admin August 28, 2026 0 Comments

New York Subway Hero Daniel Penny Joins Social Media With Vociferous Defense Of Data Centers

Daniel Penny, the New Yorker who was found not guilty of criminally negligent homicide after he choked out an unstable homeless man on the subway, joined social media to champion an unlikely cause.

Penny joined venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz in Feb. 2025, just a couple of months after his trial, and is now publicly advocating for the construction of data centers. Penny wrote in an over 2,000-word X post that he believes he has a “perspective that is rare” on the issue.

Penny noted that he takes great effort to buy American-made products and is worried about China undercutting American business by using slave labor and automation. Supporting American companies, he argued, that use “advanced software and automate using robotic systems”— and rely on data centers to support their computer processing — are the key to unlocking American remanufacturing.

“I am telling you the data center is not the enemy. It is the forge. It trains the robots that will bring manufacturing home. It automates the office jobs we never should have manufactured in the first place, and starves the diploma mills that manufactured them,” Penny wrote. “It creates more demand for electricians, welders, and pipefitters than this country has seen in generations.”(RELATED: How Politicians Changed Their Tune On Data Centers)

“Build the data centers and you will get paychecks, purpose, and pride back in the hands of the people who want to rebuild this country,” he continued. “The data center is not the thing taking American jobs. It is the thing offering them back.”

Penny is a member of Andreessen Horowitz’s American Dynamism team, an imprint that says it backs businesses and entrepreneurs whose work supports the national interest.

Twenty-six percent of Americans support the construction of new data centers, according to a PublicFirst poll from June 2026. Americans most consistently cite concerns about water use, environmental impact, and rising energy prices as reasons for opposing data centers in their communities.

Penny includes a warning to Big Tech in his pro-data center pitch. He says data center builders must “show their appreciation for the society they are helping to build,” including by making data centers more aesthetically pleasing.

Penny’s national profile dates back to May 2023, when he was criminally charged in the death of Jordan Neely on the subway. Prosecutors accused Penny during the trial of putting Neely in a chokehold for approximately six minutes, leading to his death. (RELATED: Daniel Penny Speaks Out On Jordan Neely’s Death: ‘I Couldn’t Just Sit Still’)

Penny and some of his fellow passengers on the train said Neely was acting erratically and threatening bystanders.

“He was yelling, so I took my headphones out to hear what he was yelling, and the three main threats that he repeated over and over again were ‘I’m going to kill you, I’m prepared to go to jail for life and I’m willing to die,’” Penny recounted after the incident. “I was scared for myself, but I looked around, I saw women and children – he was yelling in their faces, saying these threats, I couldn’t just sit still.”

A second-degree manslaughter charge was dismissed after the jury couldn’t reach a verdict, and Penny was found not guilty on the lesser charge of criminally negligent homicide.