Data centers were on the ballot. American voters rejected them | Data Centers – United States

There were three big losers in Tuesday’s midterm elections in the United States: Donald Trump, Elon Musk and data centers.

Data centers, those facilities filled with semiconductor chips that power artificial intelligence and a host of other online products, were up for election in at least 40 jurisdictions across 10 states. Voters responded with a strong rebuke of the giant buildings, which have become a symbol of the tech industry and AI.

In Ohio alone, at least 14 municipalities have passed bans or restrictions on data center development, including in Sunbury, where Amazon has proposed a $2 million data center project. In Maine, eight municipalities have adopted temporary data center moratoriums. In Emporio, Kansas, where a 1,000-acre gigawatt-scale data center was recently proposed, a ban on high-impact data centers was approved by voters.

Voters approved almost every data center moratorium that appeared on the ballot, dozens in total, with one notable exception: Hardwood, North Dakota. The small town of fewer than 1,000 residents voted against a bill that would impose restrictions on data center development.

Where data centers were not explicitly on the ballot, officials who had opposed their development were elected. In Texas, Democrat Gina Hinojosa, who won a historic victory as governor over her Republican opponent on Tuesday evening, promised to impose moratoriums on their construction. She pledged to implement tighter restrictions and seek community input on the possibility of building data centers. Towards the end of his mandate, Greg Abbott, his Republican opponent, also tried to capitalize on anti-data center sentiment, demanding an end to electricity subsidies for them. He reversed his previous position, which welcomed data centers within the state.

Keisha Lance Bottoms, now governor of Georgia, and Amy Acton, the new governor of Ohio, have also committed to putting moratoriums in place on the construction of large data centers.

Anti-data center sentiment has grown in recent months and has become a bipartisan issue. In May, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed a bill imposing strict regulations on large-scale data centers. Yet last night’s election solidified the overwhelming opposition to these computing centers that have become substitutes for the ultra-rich and the AI ​​industry’s resource extraction.

“Data centers in space look pretty attractive right now,” Elon Musk, who has invested more than $400 million to support conservative candidates, said on X.

Analyst Dan Ives said the midterm results are a clear sign that the pace of data center construction will begin to slow.

“There is no way to sugarcoat the fact that the Democratic takeover, particularly of the Senate, will create major obstacles to legislation on AI and technology in the Beltway over the next two years,” Ives said. Ives said he was particularly concerned about Hinojosa, who is a “known anti-data center politician.”

“The biggest worry of the evening for tech investors and the AI ​​business was over the state of Texas, where 25 to 30 percent of the gigawatts and data center capacity will come from,” he said.