The Tech Industry's Political Maze On Ai Data Centers

The tech industry is facing fierce local backlash to data center projects around the country. But a new poll suggests national opinion is still up for grabs.

Cities from Madison, Wisconsin, to Chandler, Arizona, are rejecting new data centers — the hulking, server-packed complexes that make up the backbone of the booming artificial intelligence industry — citing everything from rising electricity costs to depleted water tables and air pollution.

Nationally, however, the tech giants behind the rapid rollout of data centers have a window to shape public opinion despite opposition they’re seeing on the local level, according to new results from The POLITICO Poll. The survey, conducted by London-based independent polling company Public First, found that most voters are blasé — even mildly positive — about the possibility of having a data center in their area, associating them with new jobs and other economic benefits.

But the industry’s standing is also precarious, and the poll suggests a partisan split is emerging: People increasingly see the tech companies as aligned with Republicans, the survey shows. And Democratic Govs. Abigail Spanberger of Virginia and Mikie Sherrill of New Jersey won races in November in part by campaigning to force data center operators to help upgrade the electric grid and keep utility rates down.

As the AI-driven projects spread, the map the industry will have to defend politically and financially will keep expanding, far beyond traditional clusters of data center growth in places like Virginia and Texas.

“I think it’s going to be a big issue in the midterm elections,” said Brad Carson, a former Oklahoma Democratic representative and head of Public First, a super PAC pushing for AI regulations that has no relation to POLITICO’s polling partner. He said that while most people can tune out data centers as an abstraction, “we know there are discrete pockets of people — often quite conservative in their politics — who care a lot about it.”

Carson said people who are against data centers “are likely to vote on that issue, right, because, ‘I don't want a data center in my neighborhood, I’m opposed to it.’ The guys who are for [data centers] are like me — they're a million miles away from the nearest data center.”

While distance from a data center is a factor, the poll found that voters aren’t reflexively opposed to the idea of having one nearby the way they might be quick to complain about new transmission towers or freeway expansions: Thirty-seven percent of respondents say they would support a new data center in their area, compared with 28 percent opposed. That leaves a large portion of people — 36 percent — that could swing either way.

People surveyed saw new jobs as the main benefit of a local data center (37 percent), while 29 percent saw rising electricity costs as the main drawback — the latter being a risk the tech industry is eager to get ahead of.

Google spokesperson Michael Appel said the company covers its own energy costs, increases local energy efficiency and accelerates adoption of new power sources in the communities it operates in. He also wasn’t surprised that the poll didn’t reveal broad excitement for or opposition to new data centers, the projects critical to the industry’s growth, since the local politics vary for each one.

Meta also defended its approach to concerns about electricity costs, with spokesperson Andy Stone pointing to the company’s new investments in energy projects and water restoration. He said Meta “pays the full costs for energy used by our data centers so they aren’t passed onto consumers.”

Josh Levi, president of the Data Center Coalition — an industry group that includes tech giants Google, Microsoft, Meta and AWS — said the poll results “reinforce the fact that the data center industry provides significant, tangible benefits that are currently being felt in local communities across the country,” including new jobs, investments and tax revenue. But he also said the poll shows “the importance of continued efforts to better educate and inform the public about the industry.”

The tech companies may also be facing a political choice.

As the leaders of industry giants such as Meta, Amazon and Oracle embrace Donald Trump — flanking the new president at his second inauguration last year — that air of partisanship stands to get passed onto local debates about data centers.

When looking at support for data centers by party affiliation, a small split appears.

Forty-six percent of Republicans surveyed favor having new complexes in their area — 8 percentage points higher than Democratic respondents. And GOP opposition was 25 percent, 7 percentage points lower than their pushback among Democrats.

Given the hundreds more data centers expected to be built in the U.S., there’s little value for the companies to be seen as partisan actors. A hint of those risks played out for Tesla last year when activists targeted its dealerships after its billionaire CEO Elon Musk allied with Trump — and its stock price got hammered when the two men had a falling out.

GOP voters appear far warmer to the idea of data centers, and perhaps to the tech giants generally. Fifty-three percent of Republican voters said their party is more closely allied to large technology companies. That eyebrow-raising finding may reflect how the long-running cultural fight between conservatives and Silicon Valley over issues like content moderation and California’s liberalism are steadily being overwritten as leaders in the industry embrace Trump.

Tech companies were broadly reluctant to weigh in on how data centers will factor into politics just months ahead of the midterms.

When asked to comment on the poll results, Microsoft spokesperson Kate Frischmann highlighted a new data-center campaign that the company announced in Washington, D.C. She also flagged a supportive statement from Microsoft President Brad Smith regarding a White House plan to push AI companies to pay more for power than residential customers.

The POLITICO Poll shows that public attitude around these giant server hubs could increasingly become a factor at the ballot box: Even though only 17 percent expect them to factor into this year’s midterms, 57 percent of respondents believe data centers will eventually be a campaign issue in their area.

It also contains warning signs for politicians, particularly Democrats. It found that Democratic voters were less likely to support a candidate who backs a data center project than one who opposes them — a sentiment that Chris Hartline, a Republican strategist with tech industry clients, said could affect upcoming Democratic primaries and “shift Democrats even further away from tech companies and away from data centers.”

But early evidence suggests data centers present political dangers for Republicans, too. Carson, from the pro-AI regulation super PAC, said certain local races in Georgia and Virginia show the issue “seemed to be a very effective way to convert Republican voters into the Democratic camp.”

That hands Democrats the opportunity to add that to their coalition, according to Carson, “even if it's only 5, 10, 15 percent of the people who really care.”