As the artificial intelligence industry continues to expand, a large number of new data centers are being accelerated. However, this infrastructure boom driven by AI is encountering increasing social resistance in the United States. Recent research shows that in the second quarter of this year, data center projects worth approximately $68 billion were forced to be delayed or blocked due to public opposition.
First Quarter 130 Billion, Second Quarter 68 Billion, Opposition Has Covered Half the Projects
Data Center Watch, a research institution, reports that there were 45 data center development projects obstructed or delayed in the second quarter of this year, with a total value of $68 billion, more than half of the large-scale data center construction plans tracked by the organization during the same period, indicating that community opposition has become an important factor affecting the industry's expansion.
Compared to the first quarter, the number of obstructed projects has decreased—there were 75 projects in dispute at that time, totaling about $1.3 trillion. However, the latest data show that the opposition still covers a significant proportion of new projects, not just isolated cases.
The core of the controversy lies in resource consumption: to meet the needs of AI training and inference, the new generation of data centers require a large amount of electricity, water, and land. Many projects also need to build new power transmission lines, substations, and other large energy infrastructure. In some areas, residents directly oppose specific projects, while in others, local governments have begun discussing suspending approvals or establishing stricter regulations before developers apply for permits.
Data Center Watch reports that currently, there are 843 groups opposing data center construction in 49 U.S. states, with only Hawaii state excluded; additionally, 30 state legislatures have proposed or passed regulations or policies related to data center location, power consumption, and water use. Chief analyst Mikael Vila said that new opposition groups are constantly emerging, and related activities have spread to more states and local jurisdictions, with the number of online petition participants continuing to grow.
From Power and Water to Global Spread, the Opposition Wave Becomes a New Bottleneck
This resistance is becoming a real development bottleneck for the technology industry. Amazon, Meta, Microsoft, and Alphabet are continuously expanding their data centers, and such tasks require high power supply, cooling, and land scale. To meet demand, developers are seeking larger grid access capacity, building their own power facilities, and establishing dedicated energy systems for the campus. However, when it involves natural gas power generation or large-scale energy infrastructure, community opposition often becomes more intense.
Water resources are also a key point of contention. Although operators promote water-saving technologies such as closed-loop cooling, critics argue that even with more efficient solutions, it will still put pressure on local water supply systems in the context of large-scale AI parks. Online opposition is also intensifying: in the second quarter of this year, a single proposed project in Tennessee alone collected over 500,000 signatures on Change.org, accounting for more than one-third of the total signatures of all related petitions on the platform during the same period.
The controversy is also beginning to spread globally. Data Center Watch has expanded its tracking to Europe, Australia, and South Africa, where local opponents are facing highly similar issues, including approval procedures, power demand, water consumption, and community environmental impact. Vila pointed out that the United States usually sees these phenomena first, but the wave of opposition is rapidly globalizing. Industry insiders believe that when the speed of industry expansion conflicts with the local resource capacity, public opposition may become a new variable affecting the development of the AI industry. How to balance computing power demand, energy supply, environmental impact, and community interests has become a challenge the entire industry must face.
