America’s data center insurrection was entirely predictable

Silicon Valley and its techbro aristocracy is confused. They don’t understand why there is opposition to the data center buildout — opposition that is wide and deep.

How could the public be so upset? After all, Big Tech has delivered so much, including addictive algorithms that target children, pervasive harvesting of personal information , delivery apps that crush small business margins , ride-hailing apps shrinking drivers’ incomes , AI-accelerated phishing emails , hard-to-cancel subscriptions and constant data breaches .

And then there is Open AI founder Sam Altman predicting mass job losses to AI (and dismissing such jobs as not “real work” ) — actually, no, now he says there won’t be mass job losses . But maybe a malevolent AI takeover is imminent .

But seriously, for a bunch of very, very smart people, they’re being pretty stupid. It sure is easy raking in billions when you’re living in your own protected Bay Area bubble, where your physical business and employees are distant from the people/customers feeding you. It’s a whole different ballgame when you encounter the unwashed masses and need their approval.

And it shows up in the polls. According to a recent YouGov poll, data centers are viewed negatively by a net margin of 20 points overall, with Democrats net-negative 47 points and young voters net-negative 36 points. They do best with self-described MAGA voters: net-positive by just 8 points, with approval only at 41 percent (18 percent neutral).

But that’s just the abstract. When asked about their own communities hosting a data center, all demographics turn more negative — except MAGA voters, who are dead even. Big majorities think electricity prices will rise (62 percent overall). And there is bad news for President Trump. When a sound bite from him is presented to respondents, only 39 percent of MAGA voters and 34 percent of Republicans agree (31 percent and 35 percent disagree, respectively).

Polling from the Annenberg Public Policy Center was similarly negative, with all demographic groups believing that the effects of AI in the next 10 years would be negative. Respondents believed there is too little AI regulation (68 percent), opposed building data centers in their area (61 percent oppose, 14 percent approve), were negative on the effects on jobs (58 percent), and thought both child safety and personal privacy would be degraded (61 percent and 69 percent, respectively).

Belatedly, the AI and data center crowds are trying to fix their problems. They are promising to build their own power plants, fully recycle water and engage in other design and operation efforts that limit community impacts.

But the real ticket to getting these things built is money. It has finally occurred to the people crowing about trillion-dollar AI valuations that sharing a bit of that wealth is going to be necessary. Paying communities to host facilities does turn capital investment on its head, where in the past communities have had to offer tax breaks, infrastructure and other incentives to attract factories, research labs and even large retail complexes.

Those days are over — at least for the Silicon Valley plutocrats.

Recently, a developer offered households in a Pennsylvania township a straight-up $10,000 payment each, plus a panoply of other community payments. That is the future. If Altman is going to cash in, he won’t be able to do it for free. It is perfectly sensible that the locals are not going to accept all the costs of a data center and none of the gains.

So, is the data center boom headed for a bust, one community meeting at a time? I doubt it. America is a very big country. Placing these data centers is a matter of compromise for the likes of Google, Microsoft, Open AI, Anthropic and their brethren. They will need to do a lot more homework, figuring what they can pay and offering up restitution.

Naturally, some places are better suited than others. Northeastern Pennsylvania (just a short drive to New York City) is preferable to Glasgow, Mont. But you take what you can get — and perhaps a higher price is necessary for the better locations.

It is a mistake to assume from national polling and a few high-profile stories about families walking away from a multimillion-dollar payday that there are no places that will accept new data centers. For every stubborn Kentucky farmer, there is at least one in Missouri who will be happy to cash out. My bet is that enough data centers will be built for AI, it is just that the host communities are going to bargain for their share of the profits. That is how capitalism should work.

Perhaps out of all this controversy and the savaging they have taken, maybe the Altmans of the world will learn a little humility and stop treating the public like a vast obscurity who need to accept what the geniuses create.

That’s probably not a bet I would make, though.

Keith Naughton , a longtime Republican political consultant, is co-founder of Silent Majority Strategies, a public and regulatory affairs consulting firm, and a former Republican political campaign consultant in Pennsylvania.