May 6, 2026
Data centers have quickly become one of the most polarizing pieces of American infrastructure.
Warehouses filled with servers powering the likes of ChatGPT and Claude serve as the physical backbone of the AI boom, and Silicon Valley companies are laser-focused on building and expanding a ton of them.
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Hyperscalers, also known as cloud-computing providers like AWS, Microsoft Azure, and others, are expected to spend nearly $700 billion on AI infrastructure in 2026 alone, according to TechCrunch (1). Goldman Sachs analysts project roughly $7.6 trillion in total capital expenditure (2) across compute, data centers and power over the next five years.
But the people who actually live next to these data center projects tend to feel less excited about their construction. Electricity costs have jumped as much as 267% over five years in areas near significant data center activity (3), according to a Bloomberg analysis. A November 2025 Consumer Reports survey (4) found 78% of Americans worry the facilities will drive their bills up.
Residents also remain concerned about water use, noise, traffic, property values, and what would happen if these all-in bets on AI don’t pan out. As you might expect, those worries have fueled a growing backlash.
That tension recently played out in Georgia. Jesse Brooks, a 35-year-old videographer, told Business Insider (5) he organized roughly 100 residents to flood a planning and zoning meeting in Fayetteville, a suburb of Atlanta, in late January. Commissioners voted to deny an application from a Crow Holdings subsidiary to build a hyperscale data center. Within weeks, the city passed a moratorium on new applications and amended its zoning code to remove data centers as an approved land use.
A nationwide pushback is reshaping the AI buildout
Brooks said he first spotted the project on a general-purpose Facebook group his neighbors typically use to post about lost dogs. After spotting an item on a planning agenda labeled “DC” and connecting it to a CHI/Acquisitions LP filing tied to Dallas-based developer Crow Holdings (6), he began organizing on Reddit and tipping off local newspapers.
About 100 residents showed up. Roughly half spoke during public comment, raising concerns about property values and the risk that an AI-driven slowdown could leave a “massive warehouse doing nothing” on the north side of town, Brooks told Business Insider.
Similar scenes are playing out across the US. According to Data Center Watch (7), a research firm tracking development nationwide, opposition to new data centers rose 125% (7) in the second quarter of 2025 alone, affecting roughly $98 billion in potential investment. More than 140 local groups have stalled or stopped over $60 billion in projects (7) in just over a year.
Maine is poised to become the first state (8) to pass a temporary moratorium on new data centers. Even Microsoft has begun warning investors that community opposition is now a material risk to its expansion plans, Moneywise previously reported.
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The pushback also crosses political party lines. Data Center Watch found that among elected officials publicly opposing large projects, 55% were Republicans and 45% were Democrats (9). In rural Wisconsin, residents of Cassville voted 44-0 (10) to ban data centers despite a developer’s promise of 50 jobs and $5.5 million in annual property tax revenue, according to Wisconsin Watch.
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Power bills, water and what’s actually driving the anger
Much of the resistance comes down to money. A Consumer Reports survey (4) from November found 78% of Americans are concerned that data centers will drive energy bills higher. Ari Peskoe, director of the Electricity Law Initiative at Harvard Law School, told Harvard Law Today (11) that utilities tend to spread the cost of new infrastructure across all ratepayers, meaning ordinary households often subsidize hookups for industrial-scale facilities.
PowerLines, a consumer advocacy group based in D.C., estimates investor-owned utilities now plan $1.4 trillion in capital spending through 2030 (12), much of it tied to AI demand, according to CBS News. Moneywise has tracked similar pressures elsewhere, including in West Virginia, where rising bills are squeezing households on fixed incomes.
The friction isn’t just about cost. In Loudoun County, Virginia — long called “Data Center Alley” — a developer offered residents of an entire neighborhood $4 million each to leave their homes, Moneywise previously reported. In Utah, Kevin O’Leary’s proposed Stratos Project, which would notably draw more power than the entire state currently uses, was recently delayed after more than 80 residents packed a county commission meeting.
Brooks said his biggest takeaway is how much agency you have in their local government.
“It’s a very valuable resource, and you do have access to it,” he told Business Insider. “You just have to ask.”
Article Sources
We rely only on vetted sources and credible third-party reporting. For details, see our editorial ethics and guidelines.
TechCrunch (1); Goldman Sachs (2); Bloomberg (3); Consumer Reports (4); Business Insider (5); Crow Holdings (6); Data Center Watch (7); CNBC (8); Data Center Watch (9); Wisconsin Watch (10); Harvard Law Today (11); CBS News (12)
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Dave Smith is the VP of Content at Wise Publishing and Editor-in-Chief at Moneywise and Money.ca. His work has also been published in Fortune, Business Insider, Newsweek, ABC News, and USA Today.
