$130 Billion Halted: The Rise of Bipartisan Opposition to Data Centers in the U.S.

What Happened?

According to a report from Tom's Hardware, a research firm has documented that in the first quarter of 2026, more than 75 data center projects in the United States, with a combined value of $130 billion, have been blocked. This figure already matches the total number of projects halted during all of 2025. The opposition is bipartisan and stems from fears that these facilities will drive up electricity and water costs for local communities. Data from the research firm indicates that the blocked projects range from small edge computing installations to mega hyperscale campuses, with a combined capacity of over 5 GW. This pace of blockages suggests that if it continues, 2026 could end with between 300 and 400 halted projects, quadrupling the figures from 2025.

Why Is This Important?

This phenomenon marks a radical shift from the data center boom driven by generative artificial intelligence. Until 2024, local governments competed to attract these investments, offering tax breaks and land. Now, the real cost (energy, water, infrastructure) is generating cross-cutting rejection. The Trump administration has promoted national AI construction, but even that does not stop local opposition. The case of Northern Virginia is paradigmatic: in 2025, Dominion Energy reported that data centers would consume 40% of new generation capacity by 2030, which drove up residential rates by 15% in two years. In Arizona, drought has led communities to block projects that required up to 5 million gallons of water per day for cooling, equivalent to the consumption of 15,000 homes. This opposition is not just local: senators from both parties have introduced bills to require environmental impact studies and limits on energy consumption for data centers.

Consequences for the Sector

• Project Relocation: Companies will seek locations with less resistance, possibly in states with fewer regulations (Texas, Ohio, Indiana) or abroad (Mexico, Chile, Malaysia). Meta has already announced that its next 1,200 MW data center will be located in Texas, avoiding Virginia. Google is exploring sites in Finland and Singapore for 500 MW projects. However, relocation is not trivial: construction costs abroad can be 30% higher due to logistics and tariffs.
• Rising Costs: The scarcity of available sites will increase the price of energy and land for data centers that are built. In Virginia, industrial land prices have risen 200% since 2020. PPAs (power purchase agreements) for renewables have gone from $25/MWh in 2020 to $55/MWh in 2025. This will be passed on to cloud computing prices: AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud have already announced 5-10% increases in compute rates for 2026.
• Slowdown in AI Expansion: Without sufficient computing capacity, AI model development could slow down or concentrate in a few regions. OpenAI has stated that the lack of data centers in the U.S. could delay the launch of GPT-5 by six months. Companies like Anthropic and Cohere are already considering locating their training clusters in Canada or Europe. This could lead to a brain drain and investment flight, weakening the U.S. position in the AI race against China, which is investing heavily in national infrastructure.

What Should Readers Know?

This is not an isolated phenomenon. Citizen and political opposition to data centers reflects a growing awareness of the environmental and economic costs of mass digitalization. For startups and SaaS companies, this means that cloud infrastructure availability could become more expensive and less predictable. Investors must reassess the geopolitical and regulatory risks of data center projects. A concrete example: AI startup 'VortexML' had to delay its launch by six months because it could not secure GPU capacity in the U.S. and had to migrate to Iceland, doubling its latency costs. On the other hand, opposition is driving innovation in efficiency: companies like Nvidia and Schneider Electric are developing liquid cooling systems that reduce water consumption by 90%. There is also growing interest in modular data centers and small nuclear reactors (SMRs), although the latter are not yet viable at scale.

"Bipartisan opposition to data centers is a sign that technological growth cannot happen at any cost. Communities demand transparency and tangible benefits." — IRIS Research analyst cited by Tom's Hardware.

Historical Context

In 2025, data center blockages were already making news, but the acceleration in 2026 suggests a turning point. The energy crisis in Northern Virginia (the world's largest data center hub) and the drought in the West have catalyzed this rejection. Unlike the dot-com bubble, where opposition was minimal, today digital infrastructure directly competes with homes and farms for basic resources. In 2000, a typical data center consumed 1 MW; today a hyperscale consumes 100 MW or more. The proliferation of data centers has also generated conflicts over noise and light pollution in residential areas. In contrast, during the dot-com boom, companies built in industrial zones without much resistance. Additionally, the regulatory context has changed: in 2025, the FTC and FERC began investigating anticompetitive practices in the data center energy market, and several states passed temporary moratoriums. This movement echoes the opposition to coal plants in the 1970s, which led to stricter environmental regulations. If the trend continues, we could see a 'National Data Center Act' establishing efficiency standards and community compensations, similar to the Clean Air Act. In summary, the sector faces a crossroads: either adapt to social and environmental demands, or its growth will be severely limited in the coming years.