The US midterm elections delivered a clear message on artificial intelligence: voters are fed up with the unchecked spread of data centres. In Texas, Ohio and Georgia – states that had become magnets for tech giants building AI infrastructure – Democratic candidates who promised to rein in the industry swept to victory on Tuesday night.
According to a 2025 Pew Research Center poll, more than half of Americans now fear AI more than they welcome it. That anxiety has crystallised around data centres, which consume vast amounts of electricity, generate constant noise, and occupy huge tracts of land. Local opposition has disrupted at least 45 data centre projects in the second half of 2026, according to Data Center Watch, a research initiative by 10a Labs.
President Donald Trump had championed the build-out, dismissing critics in September as part of a “hoax” and insisting that “data centres are great, and they make people wealthy, and they make states wealthy.” But an NBC exit poll found that more than 50% of voters said AI and data centres were a “crucial or major factor” in their decision to cast a ballot.
Texas shifts course
Texas had lured OpenAI, Anthropic, Oracle, Microsoft, Google, Meta and Amazon with tax breaks, land and energy promises. Republican Governor Greg Abbott had sought to make the state an AI “epicentre” in September, but he later reversed course, pausing permits for new data centres pending an audit. That U-turn followed his Democratic challenger Gina Hinojosa’s pledge to halt all new construction until legal safeguards were in place.
Elon Musk, who poured $474 million (€420 million) into Republican campaigns and is building his “Colossus” cluster of AI data centres and supercomputers in Memphis, reacted to Tuesday’s results with a sardonic post on X: “data centres in space looking pretty appealing right now.”
In Ohio, the rejection was even more emphatic: 15 municipalities passed bans or imposed restrictions on data centres. Meta had planned a $1 billion (€890 million) facility in the state, and Amazon Web Services had earmarked $2 billion (€1.78 billion) for another.
What this means for Europe
The US backlash carries direct lessons for Europe, where the EU is pushing to expand digital infrastructure while grappling with energy constraints and local resistance. The unregulated AI data centre boom in Patagonia shows how quickly such projects can outpace oversight, a cautionary tale for European regulators.
European leaders have watched the US midterms closely, aware that the political winds across the Atlantic often influence domestic debates. The relief in European capitals over the Democratic gains may be tempered by the realisation that the underlying grievances – over energy costs, land use and the pace of technological change – are not uniquely American.
In Brussels, the EU’s proposed Digital Infrastructure Act aims to streamline permitting for data centres, but national governments are already facing pushback from municipalities and environmental groups. The US election results could embolden those voices, making it harder for EU institutions to fast-track projects without stronger community engagement.
For now, the immediate focus is on Washington, where the Democratic takeover of Congress will likely mean tougher scrutiny of AI companies and their energy consumption. But the ripple effects are already being felt in European boardrooms and parliament buildings, where the question of how to balance innovation with public consent is becoming impossible to ignore.
