Trump touts data center demand as polls show growing public resistance
President Donald Trump praised data center expansion at an AI CEOs meeting, but recent Gallup and Pew polls reveal most Americans oppose new AI data centers in their neighborhoods.
President Donald Trump told AI company leaders that the country desires additional data centers and issued an executive order replacing the terms “artificial intelligence” and “AI” with “Super Intelligence.” He also joined a voluntary safety agreement signed by CEOs of Google, Anthropic, Meta, OpenAI, xAI and Nvidia. Despite his optimism, public sentiment is largely negative: a Gallup poll in May reported that 71% of U.S. adults oppose AI data centers in their locality, with 70% expressing strong environmental concerns, while a September Pew Research Center survey found 60% would be uneasy about a new facility nearby and half view them as harmful to energy costs and quality of life.
Opposition has manifested in 142 protests across 42 states and a rally at New York’s Puck Building on September 15. State leaders such as Governor Greg Abbott, Governor Josh Shapiro and Governor JB Pritzker have responded with audits, stricter permitting rules, and pauses on tax incentives for new data centers.
Why it matters
Public opposition may curb AI data center growth and drive new regulatory measures.
How this story developed
- Aug 4 Texas governor pauses new data center approvals pending power grid audit
- Sep 1 Nvidia announced quarterly revenue of $96.2 billion, surpassing analyst forecasts.
- Sep 2 At a virtual G‑20 technology ministers’ session, Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk called for accelerated AI data‑center construction and additional power capacity.
- Sep 2 Trump labeled communities that reject data‑center projects “backwards and poor” and warned that China would welcome such resistance.
- Sep 4 The article warns that Republican campaigns are blaming China for opposition to AI data centers, while voters across party lines are increasingly hostile to the technology.
- Sep 12 The House is set to debate the Ratepayer Protection Act, a measure aimed at easing power costs for data centers and appealing to voters concerned about AI-driven utility bills. In the Senate, a crypto market-structure proposal is expected to face a tough vote amid ethics disputes involving Donald Trump, while the bipartisan Protect College Sports Act looks likely to advance with strong backing from donors. Lawmakers are racing to pass these initiatives before a three-week Senate session ends and the midterm elections arrive.
- Sep 13 Jon Husted introduced legislation to shield consumers from rising electricity bills linked to data‑center demand.
- Sep 15 The Global Dialogue on AI Governance has now highlighted AI’s impact on voter registration and results management.
- Sep 17 A bipartisan House bill to shift data‑center infrastructure and energy costs to tech firms has been introduced.
- Sep 21 Senator John Fetterman publicly endorsed President Trump’s data‑center push, aligning with the administration despite broad opposition.
- Sep 24 Google will send a prototype satellite carrying its Tensor Processing Units into low Earth orbit next week to assess AI hardware performance in space.
- Sep 26 The Global Dialogue on AI Governance highlighted the omission of election‑system AI from its agenda.
- Sep 27 The satellite will now fly as part of a rideshare mission rather than a dedicated launch.
- Sep 28 Martin Heinrich introduced the GRID Savings Act after blocking the Ratepayer Protection Act.
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