This week’s mid-term elections in the United States saw huge swings to the Democrats, away from President Donald Trump’s Republican party.

One surprisingly important factor was a rising backlash to the ongoing boom in data centre development triggered by the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) in recent years.

Americans across ten states overwhelmingly voted in favour of candidates campaigning for local restrictions on data centres.

According to exit polls, some 56% of voters said AI data centres were a crucial or major factor in their vote.

The results are a sign of growing tension between America’s ambition to lead in AI and the willingness of local communities to host the infrastructure needed to support it.

The Trump administration has touted data centre expansion as a core pillar of American technological leadership and economic growth. In July 2025, President Trump signed an executive order to accelerate the development of data centres.

He has also warned that communities opposing them risk becoming “backwards and poor”.

In June alone, US$4.4 billion was spent on building data centres. This is a fivefold increase from November 2022, when ChatGPT was first released. Around 75% of data centres under construction are currently concentrated in Republican-led states.

However, signs of growing........

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