Artificial intelligence has become one of the country’s biggest investment stories, with tech companies and investors committing enormous sums to the computing infrastructure needed to run it. But the national buildout is colliding with a local reality: many Americans support AI’s benefits while opposing the construction of the large data centers that make those systems possible. A Gallup survey released May 13 found that 71% of Americans oppose an AI data center being built in their area.
Opposition is high, even as the development pipeline keeps growing
Gallup said its March 2-18 survey marked the first time it asked Americans about data center construction, and the results showed broad resistance. The polling firm reported that 71% of Americans oppose building an AI data center in their local area, including 48% who said they are strongly opposed. Gallup also found that concern about environmental and community effects closely tracked that opposition.
That resistance is emerging at the same time developers continue to announce a huge national pipeline. CNN, citing data center research firm Aterio, reported on August 6 that AI companies have announced plans for 3,969 new U.S. data centers. Stanford University’s AI Index Report, as cited by CNN, said the United States had 5,427 data centers at the end of last year.
The scale of those announcements does not mean all of those facilities are moving forward. CNN reported that only 802 of the planned sites are currently under construction. Goldman Sachs, also cited by CNN, said only about half of the AI computing capacity scheduled to activate by 2028 is expected to come online by its target date, underscoring how much of the announced buildout remains uncertain.
The political backlash is increasingly visible at the state and local level, where zoning boards, county officials and residents often decide whether projects move ahead. CNN reported that about a dozen states have proposed data center building moratoriums, and that New York and Texas recently put temporary bans into action. The report also said four additional states considered similar bills that did not become law.
Even with that pushback, there is no single public list showing every community that could eventually host one of the nearly 4,000 proposed sites. Developers often file multiple applications across different regions before selecting the most viable location, according to Goldman Sachs as cited by CNN. That means announced projects can overstate what residents in any one area will actually see.
For communities where projects do advance, the effects can be significant. CNN reported that data centers already account for roughly 8% of U.S. electricity use, citing the American Edge Project, and that share could rise to 12% by 2028. Residents and local officials have also raised concerns nationally about land use, noise, water demand and pressure on local power systems, though the exact effects vary by site and many proposed locations have not been publicly confirmed.
Public resistance is only one reason the data center boom is moving more slowly than headline investment figures suggest. CNN reported, citing JPMorgan, that about $750 billion in AI infrastructure investments are expected this year alone, yet roughly 60% of the data center capacity planned for completion in 2027 has not started construction. Another 7% of projects that did begin have been delayed, according to that report.
Analysts say the bottlenecks are basic but severe. CNN reported shortages of building materials, limited supplies of advanced chips and long waits for electrical equipment. The report said wait times for generation step-up transformers have tripled, citing JPMorgan, while GE Vernova reported its turbine bookings doubled to $200 billion over a five-year period.
Labor is another major constraint. According to the American Edge Project, as cited by CNN, the United States would need an additional 500,000 electricians, 300,000 welders and 550,000 plumbers to meet proposed buildout timelines. For residents, that means the data center debate is likely to continue even where projects are announced, because many sites still face years of permitting, financing and construction hurdles before any facility becomes operational.