There seems to be a huge knowledge gap in Americans’ understanding of how artificial intelligence (AI) data centers can fuel economic prosperity and American ingenuity. In its place grows fear of AI’s impact on the future and an unfortunate pushback on its progress.
And no one is more pleased to see Americans divided on this issue than China, Russia, Iran, and other foreign countries seeking to hobble America in the AI race.
As the New York Times reported:
A state-owned newspaper in China recently published a satellite image of a data center in Gainesville, Va., writing in English that the development of artificial intelligence posed a threat to Americans’ physical and financial well-being.
A comic strip made to look as if it had been published by a Maryland news outlet — created with OpenAI’s ChatGPT by people in China, the tech company said — circulated on X this year, blaming data centers for soaring electricity bills. It showed a tycoon smoking a cigar and clutching bags of cash.
A video shared on X by a known covert Russian influence operation questioned the viability of a data center that an American company, Firebird, is constructing in Armenia, the small Caucasus nation that has been a focus of Kremlin pressure. “The country’s electrical grid instability may render it useless,” the video’s narrator says.
All are examples of a push by foreign adversaries to seize on what polls have shown is deep ambivalence — verging at times on hostility — about the spread of the data centers needed to power A.I. in the United States and elsewhere.
And it appears to be working. On July 21, New York Governor Kathy Hochul signed the first state-based moratorium pausing environmental permits for AI data center projects at the 50 megawatt level for up to one year.
President Donald Trump is none too pleased, declaring in a Truth Social post that, “New York State has made a terrible decision.” Trump added, “Data Centers are tremendous WINS for the States and Communities that are lucky enough to get them.”
But citizens and non-profits in states from Utah to Oklahoma to Tennessee disagree, and are expressing their resistance, much of it fueled by this foreign-engineered misinformation, as the Washington Post detailed.
Tech giants and other data center backers have been caught off guard by the rapid rise of public opposition, arguing that the hubs are essential for modern digital services and to keep the United States ahead of China on AI.
A spokesperson for Google, which is behind the Sand Springs data center, said it “strives to always be a good neighbor through long-term partnerships and investments in our sites, our people and the communities where we are located.” The company said it’s working to ensure compliance with Oklahoma law and local permitting guidelines.
Some data center proponents also say that concerns about the computer hubs are sometimes misinformed, stirred by foreign propaganda or a symptom of NIMBY-ism — or “Not in My Backyard,” shorthand for resistance to housing development and other new construction.
Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum, whose department helps guide the approval and regulatory framework for such projects, has raised similar alarm bells on foreign involvement in not just poisoning American minds with propaganda, but actively funding the protests, per the New York Post:
“Any place that’s trying to build data centers is getting bombarded with foreign-directed propaganda to try to block these from being built,” Burgum said. “This is just another attack on the U.S. and our ability to be competitive.”
The protests have succeeded in slowing down an AI data center called the Stratos Project, a 9-gigawatt hyperscale campus, which encompasses 40,000 acres in Box Elder County, Utah, but plans to pull from its own power and water supply. The project’s founder, entrepreneur Kevin O’Leary, has met much resistance to building this center. As a result, Utah officials have asked O’Leary to reduce the footprint of the campus by 75%. It is a demand O’Leary deemed to be “outrageous.”
While these public battles play out in Utah, Americans’ reticence and pushback over AI data centers is becoming a reality across the nation. On July 18, HumansFirst, an organization co-founded by former Tea Party leader Amy Kremer, coordinated 142 protests across 42 states, as The Daily Signal reported:
[Kremer] compares growing opposition to data centers to the right-wing populist movement that emerged in 2009 to protest what it saw as excessive taxation and government overreach.
Protesters rallied against what HumansFirst calls the “unaccountable” buildout of data centers and ‘unacceptable infringement on our liberty.’
In the deep South, the state of Alabama houses 13 operational data centers with 14 projects in the planning phase. But there has been significant community pushback on new developments. Alabama is electing a new governor in November, and this issue is impacting the trajectory of the race, with the Republican candidate Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) laying out the welcome mat for data center expansion, while the Democrat candidate Doug Jones stands for putting moratoriums on further expansion.
Local and state lawmakers in a number of states are realizing this issue reaches across party lines and political leanings, so they are working to balance resident concerns and complaints while also hoping to take advantage of the benefits and productivity the AI industry will bring.
Bryce Chinault, a Wisconsin resident and AI proponent, said:
Data centers are not a bogeyman. They are part of the foundation for today’s economy and a more prosperous future.
Tech founder and investor David Sacks, also a co-chair of President Donald Trump’s Council of Advisers on Science & Technology, is raising his own alarm bells, particularly in light of the July 17 announcement that Chinese-based Kimi Moonshot’s K-3 AI has surpassed Anthropic’s Claude AI in the Frontend Code Arena, an evaluation metric of AI’s power and performance.
Sacks warned on X:
How long will it take Americans to understand and embrace this perspective while also working toward a balance between technology’s progress and preservation of natural resources?
While in the past we have managed to bridge these differences in order to make room for the forward march of technology and innovation, we are in a race against the clock with China.
But never bet against Americans’ desire to be first and ahead of the curve on that innovation—even when it comes to data center buildout.