The year data centers went from backend to center stage

There was a time when most Americans had little to no knowledge about their local data center. Long the invisible but critical backbone of the internet, server farms have rarely been a point of interest for folks outside of the tech industry, let alone an issue of particularly captivating political resonance.

Well, as of 2025, it would appear those days are officially over.

Over the past 12 months, data centers have inspired protests in dozens of states, as regional activists have sought to combat America’s ever-increasing compute buildup. Data Center Watch, an organization tracking anti-data center activism, writes that there are currently 142 different activist groups across 24 states that are organizing against data center developments.

Activists have a variety of concerns: the environmental and potential health impacts of these projects, the controversial ways in which AI is being used, and, most importantly, the fact that so many new additions to America’s power grid may be driving up local electricity bills.

Such a sudden populist uprising appears to be a natural response to an industry that has grown so quickly that it’s now showing up in people’s backyards. Indeed, as the AI industry has swelled to dizzying heights, so, too, has the cloud computing business. Recent U.S. Census Bureau data shows that, since 2021, construction spending on data centers has skyrocketed a stunning 331%. Spending on these projects totals in the hundreds of billions of dollars. So many new data centers have been proposed in recent months that many experts believe that a majority of them will not — and, indeed, could not possibly — be built.

This buildout shows no signs of slowing down in the meantime. Major tech giants — including Google, Meta, Microsoft, and Amazon — have all announced significant capital expenditure projections for the new year, a majority of which will likely go toward such projects.

New AI infrastructure isn’t just being pushed by Silicon Valley but by Washington, D.C., where the Trump administration has made artificial intelligence a central plank of its agenda. The Stargate Project, announced in January, set the stage for 2025’s massive AI infrastructure buildout by heralding a supposed “re-industrialization of the United States.”

In the process of scaling itself exponentially, an industry that once had little public exposure has suddenly been thrust into the limelight — and is now suffering backlash. Danny Cendejas, an activist with the nonprofit MediaJustice, has been personally involved in a number of actions against data centers, including a protest that took place in Memphis, Tennessee, earlier this year, where locals came out to decry the expansion of Colossus, a project from Elon Musk’s startup, xAI.

Cendejas told TechCrunch that he meets new people every week who express interest in organizing against a data center in their community. “I don’t think this is going to stop anytime soon,” he said. “I think it’s going to keep building, and we’re going to see more wins — more projects are going to be stopped.”

Evidence in support of Cendejas’ assessment is everywhere you look. Across the country, communities have reacted to newly announced server farms in much the same way the average person might react to the presence of a highly contagious plague. In Michigan, for instance, where developers are currently eyeing 16 different locations for potential data center construction, protesters recently descended upon the state’s capitol, saying things like: “Michiganders do not want data centers in our yards, in our communities.” Meanwhile, in Wisconsin — another development hot spot — angry locals appear to have recently dissuaded Microsoft from using their town as a headquarters for a new 244-acre data center. In Southern California, the tiny city of Imperial Valley recently filed a lawsuit to overturn its county’s approval of a data center project, expressing environmental concerns as the rationale.

The discontent surrounding these projects has gotten so intense that politicians believe it could make or break particular candidates at the ballot box. In November, it was reported that rising electricity costs — which many believe are being driven by the AI boom — could become a critical issue that determines the 2026 midterm elections.

“The whole connection to everybody’s energy bills going up — I think that’s what’s really made this an issue that is so stark for people,” Cendejas told TechCrunch. “So many of us are struggling month to month. Meanwhile, there’s this huge expansion of data centers…[People are wondering] Where is all that money coming from? How are our local governments giving away subsidies and public funds to incentivize these projects, when there’s so much need in our communities?”

In some cases, protests appear to be working and even halting (if only temporarily) planned developments. Data Center Watch claims that some $64 billion worth of developments have been blocked or delayed as the result of grassroots opposition. Cendejas is certainly a believer in the idea that organized action can halt companies in their tracks. “All this public pressure is working,” he said, noting that he could sense a “very palpable anger” around the issue.

Unsurprisingly, the tech industry is fighting back. Earlier this month, Politico reported that a relatively new trade group, the National Artificial Intelligence Association (NAIA), has been “distributing talking points to members of Congress and organizing local data center field trips to better pitch voters on their value.” Tech companies, including Meta, have been taking out ad campaigns to sell voters on the economic benefits of data centers, the outlet wrote. In short: The tech industry’s AI hopes are pegged to a compute buildout of epic proportions, so for now it’s safe to say that in 2026 the server surge will continue, as will the backlash and polarization that surround it.