{"id":880203,"date":"2026-09-02T02:48:13","date_gmt":"2026-09-02T02:48:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/880203\/"},"modified":"2026-09-02T02:48:13","modified_gmt":"2026-09-02T02:48:13","slug":"why-the-data-center-backlash-wont-stop-the-ai-buildout","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/880203\/","title":{"rendered":"Why the data center backlash won\u2019t stop the AI buildout"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the United States, building a data center now polls<\/a> roughly as well as abolishing the police<\/a>. If current trends continue, server warehouses may soon be less popular with Americans than pizza topped with pineapple and shattered glass.<\/p>\n

In an August survey<\/a> from Heatmap Pro and Embold Research, just 15 percent of Americans said they would support a data center being built in their area, while 75 percent expressed opposition. One year earlier, 43 percent of respondents in the same poll had approved of nearby data center development, while just 42 percent opposed it.<\/p>\n

Data center projects are increasingly unpopular and vulnerable to local opposition.Nevertheless, the AI infrastructure buildout remains massive.The economic forces driving the data center boom are extremely strong.Since AI data centers can be located almost anywhere, it\u2019s difficult to stop them from being built somewhere.<\/p>\n

This soaring backlash is visible in other surveys \u2014 and in the actions of elected officials. In recent weeks, Wisconsin\u2019s gubernatorial candidates sparred over who hates data centers more<\/a>, Pennsylvania\u2019s center-left Gov. Josh Shapiro enacted new restrictions<\/a> on AI infrastructure projects (after previously championing such investment), and even Texas\u2019s staunchly pro-business<\/a> Republican government announced a temporary moratorium on new approvals.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, data center projects are being canceled at a record rate<\/a>, as local opposition mounts.<\/p>\n

This has led some in the pro-tech minority to worry that the data center buildout is about to collapse<\/a> \u2014 and take the US economy down with it<\/a>. Anti-AI commentators, for their part, are cheering the industry\u2019s impending crisis<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But such panic and celebration are both premature.<\/p>\n

In truth, despite exploding opposition, the data center boom is still going strong. Interviews with industry experts and recent construction data suggest that the economic forces driving the buildout remain more powerful than the political winds blowing against it. And unless Congress enacts a national moratorium, AI companies will almost certainly be able to continue finding jurisdictions willing to tolerate hyperscale campuses, in exchange for sufficient revenue and incentives.<\/p>\n

America\u2019s data center boom can be slowed and geographically shifted. But it probably can\u2019t be killed, absent a collapse in demand for computing power or a much bigger revolution in American politics.<\/p>\n

The boom is bigger than the backlash<\/p>\n

There are two fundamental facts about today\u2019s data center boom: 1) The backlash against it is huge, and 2) the buildout is even bigger.<\/p>\n

The climate news outlet Heatmap has kept a tracker<\/a> of new data center restrictions and cancellations. As of late July, it found that more than 500 jurisdictions had enacted severe constraints or bans on data center construction. The vast majority of these measures had been enacted since the beginning of this year.<\/p>\n

The publication also found that contested data center projects face a skyrocketing cancellation rate. In late 2024, 20 percent of disputed developments were canceled; in the first half of 2026, that figure was closer to 50 percent. By Heatmap\u2019s tally, more than 100 data center projects have been nixed this year in the face of local opposition, while more than 200 are currently being fought.<\/p>\n

This surge of mass resistance is remarkable. And yet, it is also nowhere near sufficient to end the AI buildout.<\/p>\n

Although the number of places with severe restrictions (or outright bans) on server farms is rapidly rising, more than 90 percent of US counties<\/a> had no significant constraints on data center development at July\u2019s end.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s more, many of the most eye-catching recent policy changes are less significant than they appear. For example, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott\u2019s pause does not actually<\/a> halt data center construction in the Lone Star State. Rather, it essentially establishes a more thorough screening process, when server farms apply for electricity from the state\u2019s grid. Projects that supply all of their own power through on-site natural gas \u2014 as a rising share<\/a> of new data centers do \u2014 are exempt.<\/p>\n

Pennsylvania and New York\u2019s recently enacted restrictions on data center development are more substantial. Yet neither of those states are particularly important to the AI buildout. Taken together, New York and Pennsylvania host only about 6.5 percent of America\u2019s data centers, according to Data Center Map<\/a>.<\/p>\n

And their share of all pending developments is even more negligible, as the trade publication Construction Connect has illustrated<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a><\/p>\n

Meanwhile, although half of contested data center projects are now failing, many still go undisputed. In the aggregate, cancellations have not kept pace with construction or new development. In the first quarter of this year, at least 3.5 gigawatts of data center<\/a> capacity were canceled amid local opposition, in Heatmap\u2019s tally. During the same three months, at least 36 GW of capacity were added to the US pipeline<\/a> of proposed and active projects, according to the analytics firm Wood Mackenzie. As of April 1, that pipeline contained a total of 106 GW worth of developments that had already survived the permitting gauntlet.<\/p>\n

To be sure, cancellations have risen sharply since March. By Heatmap\u2019s count, at least 13 gigawatts of capacity have been nixed so far this year. But the capacity of permitted projects has also grown since April 1. And the ratio between blocked and active developments has not radically changed, according to industry analysts.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt this point, we do not think the recent wave of opposition and policy intervention has materially changed our national capacity growth trajectory,\u201d Maya Barkin, an analyst at the AI industry research firm SemiAnalysis<\/a>, told me.<\/p>\n

Indeed, monthly construction spending<\/a> on data centers in the US hit a record high this June.<\/p>\n

In short, data centers are marching forward despite taking heavy fire, like a pack of gut-shot zombies.<\/p>\n

The secrets of the AI buildout\u2019s success<\/p>\n

Why has the AI buildout proven so resilient? There are at least two reasons.<\/p>\n

First, and most importantly, demand for computing power remains astronomical. As frontier AI companies have built out larger models \u2014 and consumers and companies have increased their use of artificial intelligence and digital services \u2014 our economy\u2019s appetite for computation has far outstripped supply. According to a recent report<\/a> from the commercial real estate firm JLL, 99 percent of North America\u2019s data centers are occupied. What\u2019s more, of the 66 GW of data center capacity currently being constructed in JLL\u2019s count, 95 percent has already been reserved.<\/p>\n

Second, data center projects are unusually location-flexible. If a housing developer gets chased out of San Francisco\u2019s suburbs by zoning rules and local opposition, it can\u2019t relocate its condo tower to a mostly uninhabited stretch of Nevada desert<\/a>. By contrast, data centers can \u2014 and do \u2014 operate in the middle of nowhere<\/a>.<\/p>\n

For certain purposes, these facilities need some proximity to the users they serve; you can\u2019t adequately support online gaming in New York City with data centers on the West Coast. But even in such cases, servers merely need to be in the same broad region. The hyperscale facilities used to train AI models, meanwhile, can be located virtually anywhere with land, fiber optic cables, a modicum of labor, and electricity (and now that many data centers are powering themselves through on-site natural gas plants, even the latter is potentially expendable).<\/p>\n

Taken together, these two realities make data center construction extremely difficult to choke off. Sky-high demand for compute means that hyperscalers can afford to throw a lot of money at localities, in order to secure a project\u2019s approval. And location flexibility makes it very difficult for data center developers to run out of host jurisdictions, particularly when so many rural counties throughout the United States are starving for revenue and investment. Thus, unless Congress imposes a national moratorium, development deals will almost certainly keep getting struck.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think companies will need to open up their wallets and make sure that communities receive clear benefits,\u201d John Arnold, a billionaire investor and philanthropist who sits on Meta\u2019s board (and whose foundation has given funding to Vox), told me. \u201cThere will be places that raise their hands and say, \u2018For X amount of benefit, we will welcome you into the community.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Just this week, West Virginia Gov. Patrick Morrisey signaled that he was moving forward<\/a> with plans to encourage data center development and use the consequent revenue to slash the state\u2019s income tax.<\/p>\n

Municipal permitting won\u2019t preempt the robot apocalypse<\/p>\n

On one level, all this may seem to validate anti-data center activism: If there are countless potential locations for these facilities, then why should any community host one it doesn\u2019t want?<\/p>\n

This said, many oppose new data centers out of concern for their aggregate impacts, rather than their local ones. Climate activists fear that the AI buildout will generate perilous increases<\/a> in carbon emissions. Populists on the right and left,<\/a> meanwhile, want to slow the progress of artificial intelligence, so as to prevent the technology from causing mass unemployment<\/a> \u2014 and\/or human extinction<\/a>.<\/p>\n

For these factions, the buildout\u2019s resilience has more complicated implications. If state and local bans are unlikely to end the boom, then green groups might be unwise to push for such measures in relatively climate-conscious areas. After all, doing so could shift development toward jurisdictions with less renewable energy, and\/or fewer restrictions on carbon pollution. Given that risk, blue-state environmentalists may do more to mitigate AI\u2019s climate impacts by regulating data center development than by banning it. Specifically, climate groups could demand that hyperscalers help bankroll the vast expansions of clean energy<\/a> and transmission infrastructure that the green transition has always required.<\/p>\n

For AI doomers, on the other hand, local bans may have some instrumental value. Moratoria and other restrictions are surely slowing the data center buildout at the margin. Still, as long as hyperscale facilities remain location-flexible \u2014 and tech companies stay well-capitalized \u2014 AI infrastructure will get built somewhere. A national moratorium could buy significant time. But ultimately, humanity\u2019s security from the risks of AI hinges less on whether data centers get built than on what companies are allowed to do with them \u2014 and how the wealth they generate is distributed.<\/p>\n

The data center rebellion is among the most remarkable popular movements in recent memory. But it is arrayed against one of the largest investment frenzies in human history. Unless or until the AI industry\u2019s alleged \u201cbubble<\/a>\u201d bursts, its buildout will be exceptionally difficult to stop. Yet where that buildout happens, how it\u2019s powered \u2014 and what communities extract from it \u2014 are all up for grabs (and, increasingly, being grabbed).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In the United States, building a data center now polls roughly as well as abolishing the police. If…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":880204,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[62,276,277,49,48,140,714,61],"class_list":["post-880203","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificialintelligence","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-innovation","tag-politics","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/880203","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=880203"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/880203\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/880204"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=880203"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=880203"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=880203"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}