A new report says the activity is hindering data center construction at an increasing rate. Only in the first three months of 2026 did local groups and protesters succeed success rate as in all 2025.
These findings come from an institution called Data Center Watchsounds a bit like an activist group itself, although it is actually one project maintained by artificial intelligence research and red team company 10a Good.
Local intervention apparently affected 75 projects worth a total of $130 billion between January and March. NBC News calling it “the most in a three-month period since the group began tracking it in 2023.”
A last request Heatmap Pro surveyed public opinion against data centers in the US and found that a majority would “vehemently” oppose building one in their home. Still, the poll reflects growing opposition, with a similar poll nine months ago showing Americans were more or less evenly divided on the topic at the time.
Perhaps the most striking sign of the growing cultural consensus against data centers is The Atlantic published a controversial essay on Fridaywritten by Elias Wachtel, one of its associate editors. It reads in part:
“(…) the data center panic is overblown. Most of the complaints raise the costs of data centers and ignore the fact that they can provide real benefits, at least in some contexts. If it’s good policy to say no, it’s not always good policy.”
So do what you will.
In any case, the Data Center Watch report for the first quarter of 2026 also notes that 49 states now have major anti-data center groups, and state-level proposals are nearing the transition threshold. Maine’s moratorium was overturned by its governor noted during he said he would sign a slightly modified version of that bill — but the report included 14 state measures that were implemented in the first three months of 2026.
