There was a time when most Americans had little or no knowledge about their local data centers. Server farms, long the invisible but vital backbone of the Internet, have rarely captured the attention of those outside the technology industry, not to mention that they are an issue with particularly fascinating political resonance.
As of 2025, it looks like that era is officially over.
Over the past 12 months, data centers have sparked protests in dozens of states as local activists seek to counter America’s ever-increasing computing expansion. Data Center Watch, an organization that tracks anti-data center activity, writes that 142 different activist groups are currently organizing against data center development in 24 states.
Activists have a variety of concerns. The potential environmental and health impacts of these projects, the controversial ways in which AI will be used, and most importantly, the fact that so many new additions to the U.S. power grid could be driving up local electricity prices.
Such a sudden populist uprising seems like a natural reaction to an industry that has grown so quickly that it is now starting to appear in people’s backyards. In fact, as the AI industry expands dizzyingly, so too does the cloud computing business. According to recent U.S. Census Bureau data, data center construction spending has jumped an astonishing 331% since 2021. Spending on these projects totals hundreds of billions of dollars. So many new data centers have been proposed in recent months that many experts believe that the vast majority will not, and in fact, have no chance of being built.
This buildup shows no signs of slowing anytime soon. Big tech companies like Google, Meta, Microsoft, and Amazon have all announced significant capital spending forecasts for the new year, with much of that likely going toward these projects.
New AI infrastructure is being pushed not only in Silicon Valley but also in Washington, D.C., where the Trump administration has put artificial intelligence at the center of its agenda. The Stargate project, announced in January, set the stage for a massive AI infrastructure buildout in 2025 by foreshadowing the envisioned “reindustrialization of America.”
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In the process of expanding exponentially, an industry that was once largely invisible to the public has suddenly been thrust into the spotlight and is now suffering a backlash. Danny Candejas, an activist with the nonprofit Media Justice, has been personally involved in a number of actions against data centers, including protests earlier this year in Memphis, Tennessee, where local residents took to court to denounce the expansion of Elon Musk’s startup xAI’s Colossus project.
Candejas told TechCrunch that he meets weekly with new people in the community who are interested in organizing against data centers. “I don’t see this situation stopping anytime soon,” he said. “I think it’s going to continue to develop. And we’re going to see more successes. We’re going to see more projects being canceled.”
The evidence supporting Candeja’s assessment is everywhere. Across the country, communities are reacting to newly announced server farms much like the general public would react to the presence of a highly contagious disease. In Michigan, for example, where developers are currently eyeing 16 different locations for data center sites, protesters recently descended on the state Capitol, saying things like, “Michiganders don’t want data centers in our backyards or in our communities.” Meanwhile, in Wisconsin, another development hotspot, angry locals recently appeared to dissuade Microsoft from using the town as the headquarters for a new 244-acre data center. A small Southern California city, Imperial Valley, recently filed a lawsuit to revoke county approval for a data center project, citing environmental concerns as its basis.
Discontent over these projects has become so intense that politicians believe they could make or break certain candidates at the polls. In November, it was reported that rising electricity prices, which many believe are being caused by the AI boom, could be a key issue in determining the 2026 midterm elections.
“I think the overall relationship with everyone’s utility bills going up is why this is becoming such a serious issue for people,” Candejas told TechCrunch. “Many of us are struggling every month. Meanwhile, there is massive expansion of data centers…[People are wondering]where is that money coming from? How do local governments incentivize these projects with subsidies and public funding when there is so much need in our communities?”
In some cases, protests have been successful enough to even halt (even temporarily) planned developments. Data Center Watch claims that approximately $64 billion worth of development has been blocked or delayed as a result of grassroots protests. Candejas does believe in the idea that organized action can stop companies from progressing. “All of this public pressure is at work,” he said, noting that he felt “very palpable anger” over the issue.
Unsurprisingly, the tech industry is fighting back. Earlier this month, Politico reported that the National Association for Artificial Intelligence (NAIA), a relatively new industry group, is “distributing talking points to members of Congress and organizing on-site tours of local data centers to better sell the value of data centers to voters.” Tech companies, including Meta, are running advertising campaigns to tout the economic benefits of data centers to voters, the newspaper reported. So, as the tech industry’s AI expectations are pegged to the expansion of computing on an epic scale, it’s safe to say for now that 2026 will continue to see server proliferation, and the backlash and polarization surrounding it.
