Voters in 10 States Reject Silicon Valley's Data Center Push
Silicon Valley's Bad Night
For the first time, the AI backlash became a nationwide ballot fight — and Silicon Valley mostly lost. Residents in at least 10 states approved dozens of data-center moratoriums and zoning restrictions, recalled mayors seen as too friendly to developers, and backed candidates like Abdul El-Sayed and Sherrod Brown who made AI regulation central to their campaigns. At least nine incoming governors support statewide data-center bans, and California voters weighed a billionaire tax that tech executives fought hard.
The titans of Silicon Valley dig bunkers for themselves and warn that the artificial intelligence they're creating risks human extinction.
- gumby
Why aren’t the dot centers bribing the locals with infrastructure? DC needs a GW of capacity? Build 3 GV, put 2 into the grid at low cost, build out transmission?
It used to be standard that companies would build infrastructure along with their plants. Cities all across the US Midwest were built this way.
- mitchbob
- hedora
I’m pro-AI. I use it all the time. I max out my $200 claude subscription and own a strix halo.
The data center buildout makes no sense.
I don’t want to work for a Trump lapdog, so MAGA++ recruiters can go pound sand.
I don’t think SV leadership realizes how f—-ked they are.
- stbenjam
I'm convinced the anti data center movement is foreign propaganda