US Tech Media: Americans Really, Really Hate Data Centers

The controversy surrounding data centers in the US is evolving from local disputes over siting and resources into a broader public backlash. As AI infrastructure accelerates its expansion, data centers are becoming a new focal point for the American public and entering the national political spotlight.

According to a report by US tech media outlet The Information, titled “America Really, Really Hates Data Centers,” public support for data centers in the US is declining markedly, with the proportion of opponents rising sharply within a year. The latest polls show that 75% of Americans oppose the construction of data centers, far higher than the 42% recorded a year ago.

Moreover, a joint survey by Embold Research and climate media outlet HeatMap Pro found that this shift in attitude is not limited to a single party: among Republican, independent, and Democratic respondents, the proportion of opponents exceeded supporters by 43, 65, and 75 percentage points, respectively.

Meanwhile, the local backlash has begun to translate into actual policy. Texas Governor Greg Abbott, a Republican, has halted the construction of 1,800 data center projects in the state; Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, has signed an executive order tightening the expansion of data centers in his state.

For the AI industry, this trend cannot be ignored. Data centers are the physical foundation for the expansion of AI computing power, and restrictions on approvals, electricity, and water usage could directly slow down the implementation of new projects. The report points out that negative sentiment surrounding data centers may further spread to consumer-grade AI products and increase tech companies' spending on political lobbying and elections.

The Speed of the Shift in Public Opinion Caught the Industry Off Guard

The speed of this emotional shift has even surprised polling organizations.

Mike Greenfield, co-founder of Embold Research, stated that the most surprising aspect of the polls was not the opposition to data centers themselves, but the rapidity of the change in public stance. He noted that people rarely change their established views in a short period, but this time appears to be an exception. Greenfield even believes that such a rapidly formed social backlash is rare in US history.

Data centers have quickly become a focal point of controversy largely due to their direct and perceptible resource consumption: huge demands for electricity and water, as well as impacts on the local environment and infrastructure.

Yuan Yao, a professor at Yale University, also pointed out that while the environmental impact of data centers does exist, the specific effects highly depend on the project location, energy structure, and resource conditions. This means that public concern about data centers is not entirely without basis in reality, but in public discourse, complex regional differences are often replaced by a simpler narrative of “high energy and water consumption.”

The problem is that the AI industry has yet to find an explanatory framework convincing enough for ordinary voters.

Tech Giants’ “PR Battle” Is Not Going Smoothly

Data centers are inherently complex, and the tech industry's previous communication methods may have further amplified public resistance.

The report points out that some companies attempted to describe data centers as the infrastructure for a new industrial revolution, but this metaphor did not work. The Industrial Revolution brought economic growth but was also accompanied by historical memories of pollution and labor struggles, which instead tended to reinforce public negative associations with large industrial facilities.

Some companies have already begun to change their strategies.

According to Bloomberg, Oracle donated to charities near its Project Jupiter data center in rural Texas and sponsored the local children's dinosaur fossil excavation theme park, Dino Dig. Anthropic, OpenAI, and Google are attempting to emphasize the potential value of AI in fields such as cancer research, hoping to shift public attention from energy consumption to the social benefits brought by technology.

However, this narrative that “AI can cure diseases” also faces skepticism. Some members of the traditional scientific community believe that tech companies leveraging major illnesses for promotion tend to package complex scientific achievements into marketing stories for AI.

Greenfield bluntly stated that tech companies still have significant shortcomings in explaining AI and its infrastructure to ordinary voters outside of Silicon Valley. For the AI industry, the real challenge may no longer be proving to investors how important AI is, but rather explaining to ordinary voters why they should accept the massive infrastructure costs behind AI.

From Local Approvals to Midterm Elections, Political Pressure Is Rising

As opposition spreads, data centers have begun to enter the US political agenda.

The National Republican Senatorial Committee recently warned several major AI companies that the backlash against data centers could affect the Republican Party's electoral prospects in key states such as Ohio, and pressured super PACs supporting the AI industry to increase political donations.

This means that the costs faced by the AI industry may no longer be limited to land, electricity, and chips. To gain support from local governments and voters, tech companies may need to invest more funds in policy lobbying and political donations.

At the same time, public concern about AI infrastructure may also spread to the consumer end. Consumer-grade AI hardware developed through the collaboration between OpenAI and Jony Ive, as well as Meta's smart glasses, could be affected by broader AI anxiety. In particular, wearable devices with camera and environmental sensing capabilities have already sparked controversy due to privacy issues.

From data centers to AI hardware, the two may seem worlds apart, but they share the same problem: AI is transforming from an abstract technology in the cloud into a physical presence that occupies electricity, land, and resources, and even enters personal living spaces.

Therefore, it remains difficult to predict where this backlash will ultimately lead. It may continue to expand after intense controversy, similar to hydraulic fracturing in the 2000s; or it may replay the long-term political resistance encountered by nuclear power in the 1970s and 1980s.

But at least one thing is certain now: data centers are no longer just an infrastructure issue in the AI supply chain, but are becoming a genuine political and social game.

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