Big Tech wants you to think their massive AI data center buildout is inevitable. But American people across the political spectrum have caught on to their get-rich data center scheme. Recent polling shows massive opposition to data centers, and it’s growing. Data centers are a leech on neighbors, raising people’s electricity bills, taking their drinking water, and creating noise pollution. They also pump out dirty fossil fuels at never-before-seen rates. These are things people don’t want, and a wave of polling shows the movement to stop AI data centers is winning. 

The backlash against Big Tech has happened despite their massive spending. They’ve unleashed millions on giant ad campaigns to try to convince Americans that AI is the inevitable future. AI boosters have even implied that embracing the AI data center frenzy is a question of American pride and patriotism.  But Big Tech isn’t fooling anyone. Americans have seen what data centers are doing to their communities and what unregulated AI is doing to society. Recent polls show that people from every background oppose data centers and their exorbitant use of water and energy that are driving up everyone’s utility bills.  

Data center pushback cuts across party lines

The opposition to data centers is robust and spans the political spectrum. From January to May, the rate of people who say the costs of data centers outweigh the benefits has grown by seven percent — and this disapproval is not divided by party lines. One poll finds 62% of Republicans, 76% of Democrats, and 73% of Independents think the costs of data centers are greater than their benefits. As people have learned more about the negative effects and tax-leaking strains data centers bring to communities, numbers steadily rise against them.

Data center challengers run the gamut, and are prevalent across every race and ethnicity. Though Black and Latino voters are shown to be slightly more opposed to data center construction than their white counterparts.  This may be because we’re seeing a trend of data centers popping up near marginalized and disadvantaged communities. One major case is Elon Musk’s xAI Colossus data center. Musk’s data center is in Boxtown, a majority Black neighborhood in South Memphis that is already inundated with pollution from big industry. These neighborhoods’ air pollution rates increased as Musk’s data center used unpermitted gas-powered turbines to meet rapidly-increasing energy demands. Studies show people are more likely to oppose data centers after learning more about their effects. It makes sense that people in marginalized communities, often bearing the brunt of data centers, are even more against them. 

The pushback against data centers is working

The massive public opposition to the Big Tech AI data center agenda scares them. The one thing they rely on is people feeling like there is no choice – no way to stop their reordering of society. A slight majority of people – 55% – still think that  “data centers will be built regardless of input from local communities.” But as we’re seeing across the country, communities are rising up and winning. A future dominated by unregulated AI and invasive data centers is not inevitable. 

In New Brunswick, New Jersey, hundreds of residents descended on a City Council meeting to oppose data centers in their redevelopment plan. The opposition worked, and the Council tossed the plans — and restored language calling for a park instead. Just a few weeks ago in Marshall, Indiana, residents voted to permanently ban data centers in the county. Voters in Festus, Missouri ousted four incumbent city council members after they snuck data center development plans through legislation. Now, the residents are working to overturn the plans for the data center itself. From California to Maine, we’re seeing locals pressure city councils to stop data centers.

Be a part of the growing fight against data centers

Americans overwhelmingly want to stop the epidemic of water-sucking, bill-skyrocketing, dirty fossil fuel-spewing data centers. Big Tech is spending millions to convince us that we can’t. But the tides are changing. People in communities across the country are fighting back, and at the national level, Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have announced the AI Data Center Moratorium Act. There are many more of us than the Big Tech oligarchs, and few things unite Americans more in this moment than opposition to data centers. Together we can protect our communities and the environment from Big Tech’s destructive agenda. We just need to believe we can win, get involved, and take action.