Historically, the average American paid little attention to local data centers. These server farms, though vital for the internet, largely remained unseen and held minimal political significance outside of the technology sector.
However, by 2025, this lack of public awareness has decisively changed.
In the past year, data center expansion has sparked widespread protests across numerous states, with local activists mobilizing against the nation’s accelerating compute infrastructure. Data Center Watch, which monitors opposition to data centers, reports 142 activist groups operating in 24 states, all working to oppose new data center projects.
These activists voice diverse concerns, including the environmental and possible health implications of such facilities, the contentious applications of AI, and, critically, the potential for numerous new grid connections to increase local electricity costs.
This sudden surge of public opposition seems a predictable outcome for an industry that has expanded so rapidly it’s now encroaching on residential areas. The cloud computing sector has mirrored the exponential growth of the AI industry. U.S. Census Bureau data reveals a staggering 331% increase in data center construction spending since 2021, with total investments reaching hundreds of billions. The sheer volume of recently proposed data centers leads many experts to conclude that most of them are unlikely — and potentially impossible — to be built.
Despite this, the expansion shows no immediate signs of decelerating. Leading tech companies like Google, Meta, Microsoft, and Amazon have each disclosed substantial capital expenditure forecasts for the upcoming year, with the majority expected to fund these types of developments.
The push for new AI infrastructure extends beyond Silicon Valley, reaching Washington, D.C., where the Trump administration has prioritized artificial intelligence. The Stargate Project, unveiled in January, initiated the extensive AI infrastructure development planned for 2025, proclaiming it as a “re-industrialization of the United States.”
As this industry rapidly expanded, it moved from relative obscurity into public scrutiny, now facing significant opposition. Danny Cendejas, an activist with MediaJustice, has participated in several anti-data center initiatives, including a protest in Memphis, Tennessee, where residents mobilized against the Colossus project, an xAI startup by Elon Musk.
Cendejas informed TechCrunch that he regularly encounters individuals eager to organize against local data center proposals. He stated, “I don’t think this is going to stop anytime soon. I think it’s going to keep building, and we’re going to see more wins — more projects are going to be stopped.”
Cendejas’s perspective is widely supported by evidence. Communities nationwide have responded to proposed server farms with significant alarm. For example, in Michigan, where developers are considering 16 sites for data center construction, protesters recently gathered at the state capitol, declaring: “Michiganders do not want data centers in our yards, in our communities.” Similarly, in Wisconsin, a key development area, strong local opposition seems to have recently convinced Microsoft against establishing a new 244-acre data center in their town. In Southern California, the small city of Imperial Valley recently initiated legal action to reverse its county’s approval of a data center, citing environmental reasons.
The significant public dissatisfaction with these developments has led politicians to view it as a potentially decisive factor in electoral outcomes. Reports in November indicated that increasing electricity prices, often attributed to the AI boom, might emerge as a pivotal issue in the 2026 midterm elections.
“The whole connection to everybody’s energy bills going up — I think that’s what’s really made this an issue that is so stark for people,” Cendejas explained to TechCrunch. “So many of us are struggling month to month. Meanwhile, there’s this huge expansion of data centers…[People are wondering] Where is all that money coming from? How are our local governments giving away subsidies and public funds to incentivize these projects, when there’s so much need in our communities?”
In certain instances, protests seem effective, even pausing (at least temporarily) proposed projects. Data Center Watch reports that grassroots opposition has blocked or delayed approximately $64 billion in developments. Cendejas firmly believes in the power of organized action to stop corporations. “All this public pressure is working,” he remarked, noting a “very palpable anger” regarding the situation.
Predictably, the tech sector is responding. Politico revealed earlier this month that the newly formed National Artificial Intelligence Association (NAIA) has been “distributing talking points to members of Congress and organizing local data center field trips to better pitch voters on their value.” Tech firms, including Meta, have launched advertising campaigns to promote the economic advantages of data centers, according to the report. Essentially, the tech industry’s AI ambitions depend on a massive compute expansion, suggesting that in 2026, the server surge, along with its accompanying public resistance and divisiveness, will persist.