The data centers are winning

Demonstrators wave signs during a nationwide protest against AI data center expansion in Imperial, California, on July 18, 2026. | Sandy Huffaker/AFP via Getty Images In the United States, building a data center now polls roughly as well as abolishing the police .

If current trends continue, server warehouses may soon be less popular with Americans than pizza topped with pineapple and shattered glass.

In an August survey from Heatmap Pro and Embold Research, just 15 percent of Americans said they would support a data center being built in their area, while 75 percent expressed opposition.

One year earlier, 43 percent of respondents in the same poll had approved of nearby data center development, while just 42 percent opposed it.

Key takeaways Data center projects are increasingly unpopular and vulnerable to local opposition.

Nevertheless, the AI infrastructure buildout remains massive.

The economic forces driving the data center boom are extremely strong.

Since AI data centers can be located almost anywhere, it’s difficult to stop them from being built somewhere .

This soaring backlash is visible in other surveys — and in the actions of elected officials.

In recent weeks, Wisconsin’s gubernatorial candidates sparred over who hates data centers more , Pennsylvania’s center-left Gov.

Josh Shapiro enacted new restrictions on AI infrastructure projects (after previously championing such investment), and even Texas’s staunchly pro-business Republican government announced a temporary moratorium on new approvals.

Meanwhile, data center projects are being canceled at a record rate , as local opposition mounts.

This has led some in the pro-tech minority to worry that the data center buildout is about to collapse — and take the US economy down with it .

Anti-AI commentators, for their part, are cheering the industry’s impending crisis .