Young people are organising against new data centres even as many use generative AI in everyday life. That tension is becoming a local political issue, not just an argument about technology’s promise.
Watch Desk analysis
What happened
Fortune reports that 70% of adults under 30 oppose new data centres in their area, compared with 61% of all adults and 57% of people aged 65 and over, citing a University of Pennsylvania Annenberg Public Policy Center survey. In a separate Pennsylvania poll cited by the outlet, 83% of likely voters aged 18 to 29 opposed data-centre development.
The report follows 18-year-old Elijah Lee, a high-school chapters coordinator for Voters of Tomorrow, as he helps young people organise and speak to local officials. In Spartanburg County, South Carolina, a proposed one-year moratorium was delayed after public turnout, then passed 5–1 in September. In Hermantown, Minnesota, a vote on a proposed Google data centre was postponed after protests, Fortune says.
Why it matters
Data centres provide the computing capacity behind cloud services and AI, but their local costs can include heavy electricity and water demand, noise and pressure on land. Fortune cites estimates that US data centres used about 17 billion gallons of water in 2023, potentially rising to nearly 73 billion gallons by 2028. Those are national estimates, not a forecast for any one project.
The article also reports that AI use itself did not predict whether survey respondents opposed a local data centre. In other words, being comfortable with the tool does not mean accepting every facility, in every place, on any terms. For developers and officials, the public argument is increasingly about who pays for the infrastructure that makes the AI boom possible.
Our read
This is not a simple backlash against technology. The more interesting story is that people can value AI and still object to the power, water and land demands of the infrastructure built around it. Developers who treat local consent as a box to tick may find that the box has acquired a microphone.
Lee told Fortune that young people want rules requiring technology companies to build in ways communities can live with. That is a political demand, not yet a settled policy programme. The useful question is whether companies can show that a project’s costs and benefits are shared fairly, rather than asking a host community to take the infrastructure on trust.
What to watch
- Whether local opposition changes planning decisions or project timelines.
- Whether more states set limits on data-centre electricity and water use.
- Whether developers publish clearer plans for paying infrastructure costs and working with host communities.
- Whether local campaigns turn into a durable issue for younger voters.
Discussion spark: Should communities be able to block a data centre that supports AI if its electricity, water and land demands fall heavily on local residents, or should national technology goals take priority?
Sources and evidence
- Source update (29 October 2026, 07:03 UTC)
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