The technology industry can’t afford to ignore a growing AI data center backlash

Just weeks away now, the US midterms have a new factor beyond American voter cost of living or forever war concerns: whether they want what more than a few see as a potential blight on their neighbourhoods - those awful data center things.

It seems a lot don't. A recent national Gallup survey reported 70% of Americans oppose data centers being built in their communities, while three-quarters of the 375 data center bills introduced in US state legislatures in 2026 seek to restrict their development in some way.

Surprisingly, perhaps, it’s not just the ‘Dumocrats’ doing this: Republican candidates in states ‌including Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania but most notably Texas, are pushing back on the President’s ‘drill, baby, drill’ pro-AI agenda. You may indeed be a 'socialist dupe’ for not loving all this new compute, but when even Erin Brockovich has set her sights on you...

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