Data Centers

[phkrause]

🤠🦞 The two extremes of data centers

The Elemental Critical Data Center facility in Austin. Photo: Brandon Bell/Getty Images The nationwide AI buildout boom is separating the friendliest states from the most resistant, with Texas and Maine on opposite ends, Axios' Maria Curi writes. 🟢 Texas, with its low electricity prices and abundance of land, is drawing a wave of data center investment. Texas has 212 operating data centers as of 2024, and 651 have been announced. 157 are under construction, beating Virginia. The state offers one of the nation's most generous tax incentives, worth more than $1 billion annually. 🔴 Maine is moving the other way. The nation's first statewide moratorium on new data center construction is headed to the desk of Gov. Janet Mills (D). It's unclear whether she'll sign it. The temporary ban would give a state council 18 months to assess the approach.

[phkrause]

🤖 Inside the data-center backlash

Illustration: Brendan Lynch/Axios

Only a small fraction of data- center opponents actually live near one, Axios' Megan Morrone writes from new polling by a consulting firm that counsels leading AI labs and tech startups. Why it matters: The findings by Milltown Partners, shared first with Axios, show data centers have become a stand-in for broader anger at an AI future many Americans don't want but fear they'll have to pay for. By the numbers: Milltown surveyed 6,872 registered voters between May 10 and May 20, recruited from online panels. The margin of error is 3 points. 49% support a moratorium on new data centers, while only 16% oppose. Just 8% of respondents who oppose data centers say they know of any data centers near their home. 🔬 Zoom in: The split suggests many voters aren't categorically anti-data center, but are wary of the pace and terms of the buildout. Both Steve Bannon on the right and Bernie Sanders on the left have attacked AI as a threat to working people. Milltown Partners researcher Tom Brookes says: "This isn't happening in a vacuum. The AI transformation is arriving at a time when Americans already feel angry, insecure and pessimistic." ⚡ The industry's response: Nvidia says one of the biggest complaints about data centers — water use — could become much less of a problem, Axios' Amy Harder writes. The company unveiled a new cooling system that it says can dramatically reduce the amount of water and energy needed to run AI data centers. More on the poll ... Nvidia's announcement.