The year data centers went from backend to center stage

There was a time when most Americans had little to no knowledge of their local data center. Server farms have long been the invisible but crucial backbone of the Internet and have rarely been a point of interest to those outside the tech industry, let alone an issue of particularly compelling political resonance.

As of 2025, it looks like those days are officially over.

Over the past 12 months, data centers in dozens of states have sparked protests as regional activists have tried to combat America’s ever-increasing computing power. Data Center Watch, an organization that tracks anti-data center activism, writes that There are currently 142 different activist groups in 24 states organizing against data center developments.

Activists have several concerns: the environment and potential health consequences of these projects, the controversial ways in which AI is used, and, most importantly, the fact that there may be so many new additions to the US power grid. which increases the local electricity bill.

Such a sudden populist uprising seems a natural response to an industry that has grown so quickly that it is now popping up in people’s backyards. Just as the AI ​​industry has grown to dizzying heights, so has the cloud computing industry. Recent data from the US Census Bureau show thatSince 2021, construction spending on data centers has skyrocketed by a whopping 331%. Spending on these projects is in the hundreds of billions of dollars. So many new data centers have been proposed in recent months that many experts believe the majority of them will not materialize.and that was indeed not possible-to be built.

This build-up shows no signs of slowing down in the meantime. Major tech giants, including Google, Meta, Microsoft and Amazon, have done just that all announced significant capital expenditure forecasts for the new year, the majority of which will likely go to such projects.

New AI infrastructure is being pushed not only by Silicon Valley, but also by Washington DC, where the Trump administration has made artificial intelligence a central part of its agenda. The Stargate Project, announced in January, it paved the way for the massive expansion of AI infrastructure by 2025 a supposed announcement “reindustrialization of the United States.”

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

Candejas told TechCrunch that he meets new people every week who express interest in organizing a data center in their community. “I don’t think this will stop anytime soon,” he said. “I think it will continue to grow and we will see more wins – more projects will be shut down.”

Evidence supporting Candeja’s judgment is everywhere you look. Across the country, communities have responded to newly announced server farms in much the same way the average person would respond to the presence of a highly contagious plague. In Michigan, for example, where developers are currently looked at 16 different locations for the possible construction of data centers, demonstrators recently came to the state capital, saying things like: “Michiganders don’t want data centers on our properties, in our communities.” Meanwhile, in Wisconsin, another development hotbed, there seem to be angry locals lately stopped Microsoft from doing so of using their city as headquarters for a new 244-acre data center. In Southern California, recently the small town of Imperial Valley has filed a lawsuit to overturn the province’s approval of a data center project, citing environmental concerns as the reason.

The discontent surrounding these projects has become so intense that politicians believe they can make or break certain candidates at the ballot box. In November, it was reported that rising electricity costs – which many believe are driven by the AI ​​boom – could rise a critical issue that will determine the 2026 midterm elections.

“The whole connection with everyone’s energy bills going up — I think that’s really made this an issue that is so big for people,” Candejas told TechCrunch. « Many of us are struggling from month to month. Meanwhile, there is a huge expansion of data centers…[People are wondering] Where does all that money come from? How are our local governments giving away grants and public resources to incentivize these projects when there is so much need in our communities?”

In some cases, the protests seem to be working and even (even if only temporarily) holding back planned developments. Data center watch claims that Some $64 billion worth of developments have been blocked or delayed due to grassroots opposition. Candejas certainly believes in the idea that organized action can hold companies back. “All this public pressure is working,” he said, noting that he could feel a “very palpable anger” around the issue.

It’s no surprise that the tech industry is fighting back. Earlier this month, Politico reported that a relatively new trade group, the National Artificial Intelligence Association (NAIA), has “distributed talking points to members of Congress and organized local data center field trips to better educate voters on their value.” Tech companies, including Meta, have launched ad campaigns to convince voters of the economic benefits of data centers, the outlet wrote. In short, the tech industry’s AI hopes are pinned on a computing expansion of epic proportions, so for now it’s safe to say that the server boom will continue into 2026, as will the backlash and polarization surrounding it.