OAKLAND – Hundreds gathered recently in Oakland’s Fruitvale neighborhood to voice opposition over plans to build new data centers in the city. By the end of the night, a rift was exposed between a progressive Oakland councilwoman and leftists who want a ban on the controversial facilities.

During an Aug. 21 meeting organized by the Party for Socialism and Liberation, members said the environmental and economic harm data centers, which help power emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, pose would continue Oakland’s history of actions negatively affecting the working class.

For weeks, the group has been organizing a “No Data Centers In Oakland” petition it says has garnered over 6,700 signatures.

“Shut it down,” protesters shouted repeatedly during the meeting at the Oakland Liberation Center.

As tensions rose, Oakland Councilwoman Carroll Fife spoke up.

“The rhetoric that is happening online is going to get this organization labeled as a terrorist organization because people in the comments are talking about burning down buildings and killing people,” Fife said.

For an hour, Fife’s team and party members argued over whether the political organization had instigated a firestorm online against the councilwoman after inflammatory comments on its social media claimed she was in favor of data center development – which Fife has denied.

“If this fight is going to continue and grow into a movement, then you’ve got to be precise,” Fife said.

Companies backed by tech billionaires Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk and Colin Behring, chief executive officer of the Behring Company, recently announced plans to build data centers in Oakland.

Prometheus, an AI startup co-founded by Bezos and former Google executive Vik Bajaj, recently signed a lease for 100,000 square feet of space in the American Steel Blocks building on Mandela Parkway in West Oakland, according to the San Francisco Business Times. Tesla also signed a lease for another 40,000 square feet in the same building.

The Behring Company, which describes itself as a “vertically integrated real estate development and private equity platform,” also recently announced plans for a new 20,000-square-foot data center in a former Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory facility at 415 20th St. in the Uptown neighborhood. Because the building was previously used for supercomputing work, the company said its project should be able to skirt some permit requirements.

Prometheus and Tesla did not return requests for comment on this story. The Behring Company stated it chose its site because of its energy delivery potential, the building’s former capabilities and its close proximity to BART and nearby housing developments.

“It is fair to ask what a building like this means for jobs in Oakland. The honest answer is that the future use of 415 20th Street has not been decided, so any specific jobs figure for it would be a guess,” the company stated online.

Hiu Yung Wong, a computer science expert and professor at San Jose State University, acknowledged that little is known about the types of facilities that Prometheus, Tesla and Behring Company are planning. But in general, he said, most data centers “consume a lot of power.”

Along with power, data centers typically also need water for uses such as cooling.

“With some big data centers, they’re consuming 100,000 to 1 million gallons of water every day,” Wong said. “That’s equivalent to about 10,000 to 100,000 people’s daily water usage.”

Data centers nationwide have been criticized for displacing minorities and working-class families, and causing disruptions to utilities such as electricity and water. In Georgia, the state’s electric utility company, Georgia Power, is forcing families to move from their homes to make way for a new power line meant to predominantly serve new data centers, according to CBS News.

With that in mind, the socialist party is taking a hard line against such facilities in Oakland.

As vitriol locally against data centers has spread, so have “attacks” against Fife, the councilwoman said. Fife said she received death threats after she appeared beside the Behring Company’s CEO at an Aug. 14 news conference.

Adi Varshneya, an organizer for the Party for Socialism and Liberation, told Bay Area News Group the death threats were “unacceptable” and said the organization was not behind those who made them.

“Carroll Fife is not the enemy and we don’t see her as such. We would love for her to be an ally in this fight. I know she’s championed causes in the past against Flock. And we believe she’ll be an ally against the data centers in Oakland,” Varshneya said.

Fife said she has been working on a proposal for a moratorium on data centers.

“We haven’t approved nothing. It just got in front of the planning department,” Fife said. “The tactics when you are attacking your allies are wrong. I’ve got y’all, I do. But y’all have got to do it the right way.”

Other local lawmakers have their own thoughts on the tech industry’s foray into Oakland.

“What I want to see right now is more transparency on what is being proposed. I think in order to assess the merits of the project, more information needs to be available,” Councilwoman Charlene Wang told Bay Area News Group. “I want to make sure that as AI has the potential to proliferate here, we really do have the safe guards.”

Councilwoman Rowena Brown in November 2025 championed legislation that brought “Responsible AI Activation Zones” to Laney College, Mills College at Northeastern University, and the Unity Tech Hub.

“Our goal isn’t to tell Oaklanders they should use AI. It’s to make sure they have the knowledge, skills, and access to make that choice for themselves,” Brown said. “Choosing not to use AI should be an informed decision, not the result of never having had access to the tools, education, or opportunities in the first place.”

Oakland Rep. Lateefah Simon told Bay Area News Group she is in communication with Prometheus and is “tracking” the Behring Company project.

“Like many people across the nation, I am concerned about the proliferation of data centers and their impacts on our communities,” Simon said. “I will do everything I can to ensure that community voices are at the table and that we are centered in these developments and get the transparency and protections we deserve.”

Venture capitalist Drew Glover said the conversation around data centers should be deeper than a straight denial.

Glover is the co-founder of Fiat Ventures, a San Francisco-based firm that invests in tech and AI companies. He said he grew up in Oakland around High Street and MacArthur Boulevard before moving to Marin over a decade ago, but regularly brings his family to visit his mother, a retired Oakland Unified School District principal who still lives in Oakland.

“I’m not going to say I’m supportive, but what I am supportive of is us underwriting properly every opportunity that shows up at our front door like this,” Glover said. “At the end of the day, this is an opportunity for us to be included in the AI zeitgeist, the AI culture, the AI boom. And I think that’s worth a greater conversation than people just saying no.”

Organizers for the Party for Socialism and Liberation disagree.

“AI data centers have been appearing across the country, predicting massive profits for the ultra wealthy, while promising pollution, water contamination, and displacement for surrounding working-class communities. When the ultra-wealthy invest in AI, it is always with the goal of increasing their profits by eliminating jobs,” the party said in a statement Friday. “This fight is about more than just one data center, it’s about who decides the future of Oakland.”