U.S. data center backlash spreads as AI industry seeks friendly candidates and public support

The fight over data centers is moving from local protests into U.S. election politics, with AI companies and allied groups preparing to spend millions to change public opinion before the November midterm elections.

Build American AI, a nonprofit linked to the pro-AI super PAC Leading the Future, plans to deploy about $50 million in states including Kansas, Ohio and Wisconsin. The campaign will promote the message that data centers are necessary for the United States to lead in artificial intelligence while communities can still protect families, local life and the environment. The money will fund advertising, grassroots activity, research, media outreach and public education.

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The only reason communities across America would not want data centers is because they want to fall behind and be poor

The nonprofit does not disclose its donors. The report said it is believed to receive contributions from major AI companies. It has also created another super PAC, Building the Future, to support state and federal candidates who favor expanding data centers and AI infrastructure, while opposing candidates who resist them.

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We need data to dominate in order to have success and wealth, low taxes, and jobs galore

The groups are studying the experience of Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican who initially encouraged data center development but later faced growing opposition over rising demand for energy and water. Abbott’s requirement that companies pay for their own infrastructure has been viewed as a possible compromise.

President Donald Trump has defended data center construction. In a post on Truth Social, he said communities would oppose data centers only if they wanted to fall behind and become poor. He argued that the United States needed data to dominate in order to create abundant jobs, prosperity and low taxes, and called opposition to data centers “killing the golden goose.” He also said the movement made China happiest.

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Killing the golden goose

Residents in Arizona, Michigan and Pennsylvania have protested over higher electricity bills, water shortages, pollution and noise. Data Center Watch said opposition had caused projects worth about $130 billion to be canceled or delayed in the first quarter alone. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul imposed a temporary halt on data center construction in late July, the first such measure in the country, while a July survey found that 61% of Americans opposed a data center in their community. Opposition reached 69% among Democrats and 54% among Republicans.

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The data center opposition movement is making China the happiest