US voters curb data centers, handing Bitcoin miners an AI opening

Voters in several US states put data center limits on the same ballots as congressional races on Nov. 3, and the industry lost badly. Ballotpedia tracked 41 local contests, and voters backed restrictions in 40 of them, per Cointelegraph. The rules range from citywide bans and caps on larger facilities to temporary pauses and requirements that some projects win voter approval first.

The latest wave was even blunter: 27 measures to limit or oppose new data centers passed last week, including five complete bans, 12 partial bans and six-month pauses on new projects in three Maine towns. Grove City, Ohio, went further, approving a rule that large projects using more than 20 megawatts of electricity need public sign-off.

Bitcoin miners who already hold power contracts may be the ones who benefit. "If a Bitcoin miner has not yet repurposed their electric contract and physical plant to AI, the case to do so just got more compelling," said Jamie Brown, CEO of Global Kiwi Labs, which hosts servers for crypto exchanges and trading firms. Listed Bitcoin miners have already announced more than $70 billion in AI and advanced computing contracts across 2025 and early 2026, according to a first-quarter CoinShares report.

Local gates matter more than federal ones for getting shovels in the ground, said Jordan Knecht, head of strategic integrations at blockchain infrastructure firm Kresus. Zoning, building permits and power access usually sit with local authorities. "A company might have access to an attractive site and a significant amount of power capacity, but if local restrictions prevent it from expanding or upgrading that infrastructure, the opportunity becomes much more difficult to pursue," he told Cointelegraph.

The bill for switching is steep. AI-ready data center infrastructure runs $8 million to $15 million per megawatt, against $700,000 to $1 million per megawatt for traditional mining facilities, per a 2026 CoinShares report. Knecht said the jump requires heavy spending on cooling, networking and reliability, while SBSB Fintech Lawyers founder Yuliya Barabash noted AI data centers need steady power, unlike Bitcoin miners who can dial back when prices spike. "Higher electricity prices and additional regulatory requirements could make some projects less profitable or delay their implementation," she said.

Demand is climbing anyway. The International Energy Agency puts data center electricity use at 224 terawatt-hours in 2025, projected to nearly double to 426 terawatt-hours by 2030. With Democrats set to control Congress, both Knecht and Barabash expect lawmakers to press on whether tech companies or ordinary consumers foot the grid-upgrade bill. Knecht added that support for domestic computing capacity remains strong, and Brown was blunt about miner math: "Miners will swap to AI because it is a better ROI than mining."