Tech bros can't agree on why everyone hates data centers

People hold signs during a nationwide protest against AI data center expansion in New Port Richey, Florida.

Thomas Simonetti / AFP via Getty Images Cities and towns across the country are resisting data centers.

That's a big problem for the AI industry, which needs them to power its products.

Tech bros are blaming everything from China, bad math, and bad PR for the backlash.

Is it a Chinese Psy-Op? Are Americans ignorant? Or are tech bros just completely out of touch? Tech leaders across the country are full of ideas about why Americans are in a furor against data centers , positing theories on social media that range from practical to patronizing.

"Most explanations of why datacenters are actually fine boil down to simple math," Yishan Wong, Reddit's former CEO, wrote on X.

"The majority of people do not understand simple math." Data centers, which provide compute for large AI platforms, have come under bipartisan scrutiny in recent weeks as Americans across the country protest them in local town hall meetings and rallies in Washington.

In a Gallup poll released in May, over 70% of respondents reported opposing data center construction in their area.

Members of that group said they worried about energy and water consumption, but also reported an overall dislike of AI.

Those feelings among Americans are now trickling down to their representatives as November's midterm elections draw closer.

Texas Gov.

Greg Abbott, once a champion of AI data center expansion, has recently reversed course, announcing strict guidelines that all new projects must follow.

He said Wednesday that the state has halted as many as 1,800 data center proposals.

For AI companies like OpenAI, Anthropic, Meta, Google, and others, the issue is existential.