Data Centers

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🤠🦞 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.

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🤖 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.

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🤖 AI fuels record tech energy use

Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios. Stock: Getty Images Google and Amazon report record energy use and emissions amid the AI boom, Axios national energy correspondent Amy Harder writes. ⚡️ Google's electricity demand jumped 37% from last year, per its annual environmental report. Google's water consumption climbed nearly 35% to 10.9 billion gallons — more than double 2021's levels. Data centers accounted for most of the increase. 🏭 Amazon's greenhouse gas emissions rose more than 16% last year. The bottom line: These reports were once a chance for Big Tech to boast about clean energy and climate accomplishments. In the AI age, they're a reality check on those same ambitions. More on Google ... More on Amazon.

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⚜️ Data center payout     This giant data center is under construction in Richland Parish, La. Photo: Meta   Meta announced an expansion of a data center now under construction in Richland Parish, La. — which already was Meta's biggest — to 5GW of compute capacity. That'll make it one of the largest data centers in history. Tax revenue from the data center funded teacher bonuses up to $50,000 this year in rural Richland Parish, Meta said, as part of a PR campaign amid national backlash against data centers. Richland Parish is a four-hour drive north of New Orleans, near the Arkansas state line. The first part of the data center is expected to open in 2028. Meta says it's investing more than $50 billion in the region, with $1.6 billion in local contracts and 1,000+ jobs. Sheldon Jones, superintendent of the Richland Parish School System, called the checks "life-altering for our teachers and their families, and it's transforming our schools." 🥊 Reality check: Data centers have become one of the most contentious local issues in America. Communities elsewhere are fighting over power bills, water supplies and noise complaints. 🎷 P.S. At a New Orleans reception last night, teachers, business owners and community leaders from Richland Parish celebrated Louisiana's future with the state's civic, business, and political leaders, and Dina Powell, Meta's president and vice chairman. Musical performers included Delfeayo Marsalis, a New Orleans jazz trombonist and Wynton Marsalis' brother. More on the bonuses … Full statement.

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• 🤖 New York is becoming the first state to impose a statewide data center moratorium amid backlash against their construction, Axios' Maria Curi reports. Go deeper.

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⚡ Data center fight's new blueprint

Illustration: Brendan Lynch/Axios

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul's first-in-the-nation data center moratorium could provide a playbook for Democrats confronting one of the most heated issues of the midterms, Axios' Maria Curi writes. Why it matters: Data centers have become a lightning rod across the country, and Hochul is testing how far Democrats can go on it. 🔭 Zoom out: The backlash against data centers — and the political response — isn't limited to blue states. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) recently called for a ban on new AI data centers in rural neighborhoods and requiring the industry to shoulder more of its infrastructure costs.

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🤖 Inside a data center

Photo illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios. Photos: Amy Harder/Axios and Jason Henry/Bloomberg, Sandy Huffaker/AFP via Getty Images

Axios national energy correspondent Amy Harder got a rare look inside a data center in Northern Virginia — known as "data center alley" — to see how AI is really made. Here's what she saw: ASHBURN, Va. — AI feels invisible. It isn't. It's racks of servers, cables, cooling systems and enormous amounts of electricity — and sometimes water. Digital Realty, one of the world's largest data center operators, opened its innovation lab last September to test new technologies and give customers, lawmakers and journalists a behind-the-scenes look at modern data centers. 🔎 Inside the room: I was immediately hit with what I can only describe as "demented white noise," Amy writes. The sound comes from fans cooling racks of AI chips that generate enormous amounts of heat. It felt like standing inside one giant computer. Even beneath my feet, a glass floor revealed pipes and other infrastructure helping keep the servers cool. ⚡ The most notable parts of a data center are also the most controversial: the infrastructure needed to power and cool AI. Otherwise, from the outside, data centers just look like massive, windowless warehouses. Multiple electricity substations are visible, along with whatever cooling technology is used, which includes either huge water-filled cooling towers or rows of dozens of industrial air conditioners that require large amounts of power. Read on.

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✮ Lone Star data center pause

Image: Texas Gov. Greg Abbott via X Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) halted approvals for new data centers yesterday until the state audits projects seeking to connect to its strained electric grid, writes Axios San Antonio's Megan Stringer. Why it matters: AI infrastructure faces a growing bipartisan backlash over its power, water and tax demands. By the numbers: Data centers account for about 90% of new grid-connection requests, Abbott says. The state's grid operator is considering more than 474 gigawatts of requests — more than five times Texas' record peak electricity demand.

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Data centers scramble midterms

Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios. Stock: Getty Images

A populist fever is coursing through the midterms, forcing campaigns to retreat and recalibrate as they confront a groundswell of hostility toward AI data centers, Axios' Zachary Basu, Alex Isenstadt and Maria Curi write. Why it matters: Grassroots pressure is breaking the bipartisan consensus that enabled America's AI buildout. Candidates in both parties are racing to distance themselves from projects their own leaders spent years courting. 🖼️ The big picture: What started as scattered, localized NIMBYism is scaling into a national cross-partisan movement that could slow America's race for AI supremacy. In Ohio, former Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown has spent millions on a summer ad campaign branding Republican Sen. Jon Husted as "the face of data centers," weaponizing Husted's years of courting the industry as lieutenant governor. As we scooped in AM yesterday, the National Republican Senatorial Committee warned AI companies a Husted loss could chill support for data centers nationwide. (Read the memo.) In Texas, Republican Gov. Greg Abbott — who once declared Texas "the epicenter of AI development" — is now pushing to restrict data centers in rural areas and strip away tax incentives after Democrat Gina Hinojosa branded the state the "Wild West of data centers." In Pennsylvania, Gov. Josh Shapiro — who spent years courting data center investment — imposed sweeping guardrails this week after Republican challenger Stacy Garrity accused him of "rolling out the red carpet" for developers. In Wisconsin, GOP gubernatorial nominee Tom Tiffany is running ads attacking his Democratic opponent as "data center David Crowley." That puts Tiffany, a close President Trump ally, on the same side of the issue as Crowley's former primary rival, democratic socialist Francesca Hong. In Wyoming, Republican Chuck Gray won Tuesday's primary for the state's open House seat after running ads promising to "stop data centers" and calling for a federal ban. 👀 Behind the scenes: The backlash has caught the industry and political establishment flat-footed, triggering finger-pointing over who failed to see it coming — and who should pay to contain it. One Republican operative unloaded on GOP groups that spent months raising money from tech companies while holding back resources that could help candidates weather the attacks. "Maybe they should stop trying to shake down these tech companies and start putting the money that they raised from them into these elections," the operative said, pointing to the NRSC. "What are they waiting for?" New York Gov. Kathy Hochul — who last month imposed the nation's first statewide moratorium on new hyperscale data centers — told Axios the NRSC's push for AI companies to improve their messaging is "tone-deaf" and "wildly inappropriate." Data: Morning Consult. Chart: Sara Wise/Axios The other side: The White House and AI companies know they have a serious political problem, and moved earlier this year to address the biggest grievances at their source. Trump's ratepayer-protection pledge requires companies to cover the power generation and grid upgrades their projects require, rather than stick local customers with the bill. Google, Microsoft, Meta, Oracle, xAI, OpenAI and Amazon have all signed on, keenly aware of the threat to their massive AI ambitions.