Data centers are all tangled up in misconceptions. Most people understand that we need them to support artificial intelligence (AI). But the American public also believes that it faces a dilemma: either choosing environmental desecration and an AI takeover, or watching the economy falter and being perceived as geopolitically weak as China wins the AI war.
Data centers are an 80-20 issue, and frankly, NIMBYism has been winning of late. More people are adamantly against them than are for them — so much so that AI companies are going out of their way to sell data center construction to the public, albeit not very successfully.
Americans are concerned that a data center in their backyard will spike electricity bills and foul/deplete the water supply. They aren't willing to suffer short-term pain for long-term gain because there is no guarantee that trickle-down effects will benefit the economy.
The water concerns are overblown. And while there is some truth to the increase in electricity bills, Vice President JD Vance recently pointed out that data centers' draw on the grid should be balanced by what they put back into it. "If you build a data center," he said on Monday, "you should be putting power back into the grid, not taking it out, and if that is happening, I don't think the data centers are that controversial."
Nevertheless, the public pushback has been so strong that many politicians on both sides of the aisle won't back new data centers. For example, House Representative Tom Tiffany (R-WI) is running ads calling out his Democrat opponent for being pro-data center, and Texas Republican Governor Greg Abbott is not allowing new data centers to be built unless AI companies adhere to strict standards.
President Donald Trump is taking an entirely different tack. He took to Truth Social on Monday, writing:
The only reason that communities throughout the U.S.A. should not want Data Centers is if they want to end up being backwards and poor. If they want to be successful and rich, with far lower taxes and jobs all over the place, let Data Reign. The good news is that there are plenty of other places that want them. If we kill the Golden Goose, you will only have yourselves to blame. China could not be happier with this anti Data Center movement. Actually, they can’t believe it is happening! President DJT
Trump is slamming a fist into the stomach of the anti-data center movement. While his pugilistic style won't win many friends, he isn't wrong about data centers. As a real estate investor and businessman, he understands the financial, political, and economic consequences of AI better than most. Data centers are a key part of that.
Andrew Potter, CEO of Intelligent Harvest, envisions innovation and positive exchange between America's struggling farmers and data center developers. He astutely points out that the solution to getting Americans on board is showing them how data centers can actually benefit the communities in which they reside. He writes:
Here is the bargain sitting on the table, unnoticed by both parties. Every data center produces, around the clock, a river of waste heat — bought and paid for, then thrown into the sky. That heat is precisely the input that year-round greenhouse agriculture requires, and the lack of it — energy cost — is why a decade of indoor farming ventures failed without ever asking Washington for a bailout that could have saved them. Pair the two, privately, and the economics flip. The data center's trash becomes the farm's fuel. No subsidy. No new agency. A pipe.
Because of the intelligence race with China, the marketing and political explanations must keep up with national security concerns. Trump's fiery pronouncement isn't delicate, but it reflects the urgency of this matter. Now other politicians and businessmen need to go into their communities and explain why data centers will benefit them.
