Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang says data center builders have to be 'good neighbors'

Nvidia ( NVDA ) CEO Jensen Huang says that for data center builders to win over communities, they must first partner with them and be good neighbors.

"When you go into a community … before you start building, you ought to extend yourself out to the local community and partner with them," Huang told Deirdre Bosa during the company's GTC event in Berlin.

"Let them know what you're about to do is going to bring, of course, all the benefits, but it's going to, of course, bring new neighbors," he said.

Data center construction has faced major pushback across the US , with some counties and towns instituting outright bans on the facilities. New York has placed a one-year, statewide moratorium on data center construction. Texas, meanwhile, has put connecting new data centers to its grid on hold as it works to determine their potential impact.

The issue has even become a flash point in the midterm elections, with President Trump backing data center development, and Democrats and some Republicans campaigning against them.

Residents have lodged complaints about the constant noise generated by data centers, water usage, increased electricity costs, and more.

To help ease tensions with local residents, some companies, including Microsoft ( MSFT ) and Amazon ( AMZN ), have taken steps to win over municipalities by dropping controversial nondisclosure agreements (NDAs).

NDAs have become a key issue among some data center opponents, as they prevent local leaders from disclosing information about the projects.

"Everybody has now taken a step back, whether it's the NDAs or contributing to the communities, whether it's building shops and … community centers and improving schools and in many cases even supporting lower taxes and, you know, all kinds of benefits that can be brought to the local communities," Huang said.

"I think those are all good ideas, and each one of them ought to be … tailored for the needs of the community. But the most important thing is you've got to be a good visitor. You know you should be a good guest. And before you go into a community, stop by and see if you can be helpful," he added.

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