USAupdated 20m ago2 min read
US Voters Reject Data Center Expansion, Approve Most Moratoriums in 10 States
“Those who see AI doing more harm than good (which is most voters) are opposed to data centers in their community.”
“Voters responded with a strong rebuke of the giant buildings, which have has become a symbol of the tech industry and AI.”
This article is an automated aggregation of coverage from news outlets. Our editorials offer in-depth analysis curated by the NewsCord team.
Voters across at least 10 states rejected data-center expansion proposals. Voters backed restrictions or rejected development measures on data centers in most ballots.
Save coverage image
Election rebuke hits buildout
The United States election cycle delivered a sweeping rebuke to data center expansion, with CBS News exit polls finding that voters opposed having a data center built in their community by large majorities nationally and in all the opposed having one built in their community. Datacenters were on the ballot in elections in at least 40 jurisdictions across 10 states, and voters responded with a strong rebuke of the giant buildings. Ohio alone saw at least 14 municipalities pass bans or restrictions on datacenter development, including in Sunbury where Amazon proposed a $2bn datacenter project.
Voters approved nearly every datacenter moratorium on the ballot, with one notable exception: Hardwood, North Dakota, where voters voted down a bill that would impose restrictions on datacenter development. Voters backed restrictions or rejected pro-development measures in all but one of 41 local ballot measures across 10 states, and the results were tied to concerns about electricity costs, land use and the rapid buildout of artificial intelligence infrastructure.
Candidates and campaign themes
In Texas, Democrat Gina Hinojosa won the governor’s race after campaigning on a proposed moratorium on new data center projects, and Fox Business said she defeated Republican Gov. Greg Abbott.
Hinojosa promised to impose moratoriums on their construction and pledged to implement greater restrictions on and community input into whether datacenters can be built.
In Ohio, Fox Business said Ohio elected Democrat Amy Acton as governor, and it reported that Acton supports a moratorium and stricter regulations.
Keisha Lance Bottoms, who became governor of Georgia, and Amy Acton, the newly elected governor of Ohio, have also pledged to implement moratoria on the construction of large datacenters.
Elon Musk posted on X, saying, "Data centers in space looking pretty appealing right now," after the election results.
What changes next
Analyst Dan Ives warned that the midterms signaled that the pace of datacenter buildout will start to slow down, and he said, "There is no way to sugarcoat that Democrats taking control especially over the Senate will create some major hurdles for AI and tech legislation in the Beltway over the next two years." The Democratic wave and local referendum results effectively give opponents of these infrastructures substantial political influence, and the sector faced regulatory tightening with potential repercussions across markets. OpenAI said Thursday it would pay the full cost of powering data centers it owns and operates, solicit community input, publish construction plans and avoid using nondisclosure agreements with public officials.
Goldman Sachs estimated that Democratic victories at the state and local levels should lead to temporary suspensions of projects, potentially affecting about 45% of the planned expansion of capacity in the United States. The exit poll interviewed thousands of voters across the country at polling locations on Election Day and in the weeks leading up to Election Day, and it framed data centers as linked to voters' views about AI more broadly.