If you want to build a data centre, don’t let the neighbours vote on it — at least that’s the takeaway from this week’s U.S. elections.
What happened: Voters opted to restrict data centres in 44 of the 45 cases where local measures related to data centres were on the ballot on Tuesday, according to Redbud Consulting.
Some towns, like Edgewater, Florida, voted to ban data centres outright. Others, like El Dorado, Kansas, capped their electrical capacity or, in the case of Perry, Ohio, limited the ability of data centre developers to qualify for tax breaks.
Zoom out: Data centres have become a highly visible focal point for voter unease with AI and the tech sector more generally, something which politicians are now tapping into.
One analysis found that candidates in more than 130 races ran ads critical of the tech industry and AI. From 2020 to 2024, only two political ads ran criticizing Big Tech.
In Canada: Opposition to data centres is alive and well here, too. A poll earlier this year found that 68% of Canadians would oppose a data centre near their home, and proposed projects have drawn local opposition.
Why it matters: AI hyperscalers will need far more customers and usage than they currently have to justify how much they’ve already spent on the tech, and that will (barring some technological breakthrough) require many more data centres. Politically, that now looks like it will be a serious challenge — though who knows, maybe OpenAI’s attempt to rebrand them as “compute campuses” will do the trick.—TS
