A few weeks ago, I was having a politics conversation with a tech insider. The issue of datacenters became a focus of the conversation. The first response from him was “this is the issue that might decide 2026 and will certainly decide 2028.”
The tech side of the issue is essentially: As 5G wifi was to mobile connectivity, so too are the datacenters the cornerstone of nationwide AI rollout. Eventually, all of the datacenters will interconnect and become part of a massive information system that houses all knowledge, a great digital brain. From that point, engagement with Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems will become like a public utility.
The datacenters themselves can be a hot button issue as their proximity to people creates friction. Battles against datacenters are taking place in rural and non-rural areas alike. With deep pockets and strong national security arguments involving the “AI race,” the technocrats are currently winning the argument. However, as with all special interest issues, the opportunity for political benefit now determines DC advocacy. WATCH:
What are your thoughts on this issue?
Is opposition to datacenters strong enough to tilt the outcome of the 2026 midterms? And do you believe 2028 will be determined with this issue at the forefront?
Skynet
Something like this (with other type of development) happened in my republican-leaning Indiana town. Democrats used it to fracture the republican base and get (a pretty awful) woman elected Mayor.
Don’t fall for it.
It’s a tight corner to be in. Like it or not, to compete globally, in everything, we’ll need them. Hence, China will be sowing discord under the table to slow our progress towards global dominance. So my knee-jerk reaction to that is that we should be going all in. However, the impact to electricity costs should be fully absorbed by the tech companies. Their profit models can and should be accounting for that.
And yes, privacy be dawned. I get it. Guess what… It already is. I don’t see a way back from that without heading into the mountains and entirely unplugging.
Embrace the inevitable.
Didn’t you mean bend over and BRACE for the inevitable, with plenty of vaseline on hand? 😎
As much as I think Alex Jones a nut, he nailed it with Prison Planet. People hardly notice with their own faces stuck on their portable spy gadgets accepting every single invasion of their privacy with one click. Unbelievable.
It is a huge issue and could definitely impact the midterms. It is alienating rural Americans fast. The same folks already losing their lifestyle and property to Green Energy now being dwarfed by the decimation caused by Data Centers… which would be far more appropriately placed in de-industrialized Urban Centers.
I use Claude more and more for work and absolutely love it. Younger generations are right to be concerned but for an almost 60 year old, I’m lite years ahead of coworkers who resist due to privacy or unwillingness to change or whatever. AI is everywhere. Learn to adapt or die. As for data centers, a healthy debate is effective, I hate hearing about what they do to water supplies, living in Michigan, fearful of the obvious…that it will be too late , and sucking all the water out of the Great Lakes feels …retarded. Engineer a better way, pronto.
“Engineer a better way, pronto.”
Agree…
It’s almost like a “war time” need.
Opposition comes from how resources are being allocated and paid for. From what I’ve read (I don’t actually know firsthand), people say that their local government is raising water and electricity rates, screwing everybody in the area because of a single data center’s resource consumption. If this complaint is true, then it’s unacceptable. Crooked government officials need to rot in a prison cell for that kind of behavior, and their oligarch cronies deserve to lose their shirts.
However, I suspect that most of the opposition is manufactured propaganda being bankrolled by foreign interests who don’t want the US to gain a technological edge. All the concerns about the technocrats are valid, but I don’t think that’s a main driver of the opposition messaging.
So do the people of this nation want industry to operate in this country, or just become a wasteland of service jobs. This argument is like saying steel mills or an auto manufacturer in your town is a bad thing. Bunch of crybabies if you ask me. I guess folks complaining would rather their kids work at the local Walmart or McDonald’s.
When the State and Local government gives the Data Center a 25 year tax abatement and the electric company gives them special rates…….the locals get taxed to make up for the short fall.
They cost billions to build, employ almost nobody (10 people to operate), promote AI to take jobs and rely on the citizen to subsidize their massive power demands. But here they come. They generate tax dollars for localities on their build cost and cost to equip. So politicians want them. President Trump is right. They should have mini-reactors to generate their own power like submarines. But overall I see them as a blight on America.
And another thing, the argument is that you’ll elect an immoral party, promoting immoral candidates, instituting immoral ideologies and policies -all because a data center is going into your town?
Having your utility bill go up because a data center comes in and forces up the cost of water and energy …
That’s definitely a hot-button issue.
Reminds me of the old days when we were told that off-shoring our industry was inevitble, so get used to it.
“Get used to it,” is not something voters like to hear.
Agree and its not just the COST of water. It will be the actual draining of available water sources, which will be quite damaging to everyone’s water access/use.
Put the data centers on the coasts away from populations and make them build desalination plants and plants for electricity.
On the outset, when the AI bubble pops, and it will as most of the companies are already in the red with their AI programs, who will be left holding the bag?
The surveillance state is what concerns me the most…research flock and what they are doing with these cameras. Gross and direct violations of our 4th Amendment.
I am totally against this expansion. It’s already gone way too far, thanks to the elected and unelected parts of federal govt.
Advances 1984 former science fiction into reality – brings even MORE massive violations of the 4th Amendment.
AI has limited usefulness but nowhere near the scale that globalists desire and are planning to build..
Jobs created by the construction and operation of datacenters will be minimal, and along with AI will bring a severe net loss of employment for meaningful work.
Energy and water required to run these using current technology is being re-directed AWAY from manufacturing (REAL PRODUCTION) and AWAY from human survival (POTABLE FRESH WATER FROM SURFACE RIVERS AND UNDERGROUND AQUIFERS) at a rate & volume that will exceed natures ability to replace it at the same rate.
Unless nuclear power generation is immediately authorized and mandated to power such behemoths, there is insufficient capacity in the 2026 electric grid into the foreseeable future.
Those previously Trump voters feel he doesn’t care about them, but they are absolutely sure the communist Democrats will. Pathetic. Bless their hearts!
What the commies will do is predictable. The question is whether the people on our side have the foresight to deal with it.
Incidentally, this is the kind of issue that helps people refine their understanding of who is on their side.
2026 — no
2028 – too many things can happen before then. Pocketbook issues and wars could take precedence
Climate change is dead so the Democrats need a fake problem to solve hence data centers!
I see opposition to AI and not just by the Democommunists who are never shy about exploiting a crisis or creating a narrative for political advantage.
This also involves the issue of taking farm land out of production.
Data centers aren’t the problem. Power for them is.
These are generational issues. Decades ago, no one wanted a nuclear power plant in their community.
Going forward, it won’t just be data centers. There will likely be a resurgence in the mining industry. Rare earth minerals and other critical minerals will be mined in mountainous and rural areas where they are abundant. No one will want mines or metal refineries in their communities either. Same with small modular nuclear reactors, as well.
It will always be a challenge for people to evolve / change with the times. Personally, I know these things are needed for national security, but I don’t want them in my backyard either.
“It will always be a challenge for people to evolve / change with the times.”
I keep thinking about displaced factory workers who were lectured about evolving and changing with the times. In my neck of the woods, it was timber workers who were expected to give up their jobs to benefit this or that animal no one had ever heard of.
The midterms will be decided by 1) the state of the economy as perceived by the bulk of the voters and 2) turnout.
Mom and grandma and great grandma had plants in their house and they were not real and they all called them artificial.
If people actually believe AI is anything but man programmed computers wake the hell up.
ALL of these “AI” systems and social media platforms have one thing in common.
They are all heavily connected and on the Strings of China and data centers need electricity and massive amounts of Water for cooling paid for by taxpayers no matter how they claim it not be true.
So, MSNOT is a credible resource now?
It never hurts to monitor what the other side thinks. Otherwise you live in an echo chamber.
Even the devil lets loose a bit of truth .
But it is never for your benefit.
The big points of contention against data centers is the tax breaks be given to the data center companies, electric use and water use.
The local politicians are only looking at the alleged financial benefits and have no clue of the potential problems.
Is this a globalist/corporatist/business/tech answer to all the green new scams, only this one has staying power, compared to Solyndra as that one comes to my mind?
last week, I think it was Meta, one of the tech giants, who announced lay offs as pre positioning towards AI?…sorry, cannot remember the details…