Democrats Want Datacenters Halted as Midterm Wins Fuel AI Backlash

The midterm dust has barely settled, and Democrats are already swinging at Big Tech's building spree. Senator Bernie Sanders took to X on Wednesday calling for an immediate national moratorium on datacenters, declaring that Americans don't want Big Tech oligarchs wrecking the environment, gutting jobs and threatening humanity's future. He wasn't alone — a wave of newly elected Democrats joined the chorus within days.

Arizona Representative Yassamin Ansari, whose state is eyeing a SpaceX datacenter project spanning more than 700 acres, posted that pausing advanced AI development, regulating the industry and banning artificial superintelligence should top the Democratic agenda on day one. Elon Musk mocked her post with a retweet, and the pair traded barbs, with Ansari predicting congressional hearings and signing off to the centi-billionaire: see you soon.

Opposition to datacenters was one of the midterms' loudest issues. Voters passed dozens of local ballot measures restricting projects, and the theme ran through victory speeches nationwide. New Hampshire Senator-elect Chris Pappas credited constituents with opposing big data centers that harm communities, while New Mexico congressman Gabe Vasquez said the time is now to stop the AI billionaire class from forcing datacenters into communities. Ohio Senator-elect Sherrod Brown put it plainly: I do not work for data centers, I work for you.

The backlash is rattling the money men. Meta platforms president Dina Powell McCormick told the Wall Street Journal it is going to be harder to build datacenters after the vote, and anxiety over fresh regulation helped fuel a hefty selloff in AI stocks this week. Musk, who spent nearly half a billion dollars backing Republicans and attacking Democrats online, joked on election night that datacenters in space were looking pretty appealing right now.

Not everyone is bracing for a freeze. White House National Economic Council director Kevin Hassett told CNBC he expects datacenter construction to keep rolling, arguing the ballot initiatives largely won't touch existing projects. Newly elected governors in buildout hotspots are pushing the other way, though — incoming Texas Governor Gina Hinojosa pledged on CNN to halt new datacenter projects until protections are in place, saying there are no rules or laws shielding Texans and that they are being taken advantage of.

Several victorious Democratic candidates also promised to hand local communities the final say over AI and datacenters, a shift that could reshape where the multi-trillion-dollar buildout lands next. With Sanders and allies now eyeing Washington hearings, the fight over the machines powering AI is heading straight from town halls to Congress.