Nuclear power plants are less annoying than nuclear power plants! 70% of Americans reject AI data centers. The reasons behind them are surprising

The country with the strongest AI doesn’t want to build a data center? Surveys show that as many as 71% of Americans oppose the construction of local data centers, and the intensity of resistance is even greater than that of nuclear power plants. (Diagram, Reuters)

[Financial Channel/Comprehensive Report] The AI competition is becoming more and more fierce, and American technology giants are also expanding data centers at an unprecedented speed. However, an unexpected resistance is emerging: ordinary Americans may not want these facilities that symbolize the future of AI to be built near their homes. According to a Gallup survey this year, 71% of Americans oppose the construction of AI data centers in their local areas, and the level of opposition is even higher than the 53% of nuclear power plants. It is worth noting that data show that the American people’s perception of data centers has significantly deteriorated in just six months.

According to reports, a Pew Research Center survey this summer found that 60% of Americans feel uncomfortable with the emergence of new data centers near their homes. The fundamental problem is not just a distrust of AI, but that data centers have begun to directly touch residents’ most real living costs. The first is the consumption of resources such as water and electricity, and the second is quality of life and cost issues. There are only a few people who oppose AI technology because they hate it.

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The report pointed out that in August this year, about 54% of Americans believed that data centers had a major negative impact on the environment, a sharp increase from 39% in January; about 50% believed that data centers were detrimental to household energy costs, higher than 38% at the beginning of the year; and the proportion who believed that data centers would harm the quality of life of nearby residents climbed from 30% to 49%. Only 4% believe that the data center mainly brings positive effects in these three aspects.

The report pointed out that the most immediate problem is electricity. According to data from the U.S. Department of Energy, data centers have consumed approximately 4.4% of the United States’ electricity in 2023, and this may rise to 6.7% to 12% by 2028. As the demand for AI servers and GPUs increases, data centers not only require huge amounts of power, but also require stable power supply 24 hours a day. Local power grids often need to add new power generation, transformation, and transmission facilities. Residents are therefore worried that the related costs will eventually be reflected in electricity prices.

In addition, water resources are another controversy. Data centers must cool a large number of servers. Although water consumption varies greatly between different designs, in water-scarce areas, the demand for water from large facilities can still easily trigger local backlash. Coupled with the possible noise caused by cooling equipment, backup generators and round-the-clock operation, data centers have gradually transformed from the original abstract "AI infrastructure" into a NIMBY facility that residents may directly experience every day.

New York State imposed a one-year moratorium on large-scale AI data centers this year, while Pennsylvania requires data center development projects to meet conditions such as energy affordability, environmental protection, transparency and community participation, and to obtain local approval. The Pew survey shows that the negative perception of data centers is not limited to a single party or urban and rural areas. Most residents in urban, suburban and rural areas are uneasy about new data centers near their homes.

The deeper problem is that the speed of AI expansion in the United States is hitting the speed of infrastructure construction. Data centers can be planned and built in a relatively short period of time, but new power generation facilities, transmission lines and grid connection projects often take longer, and local governments, power companies, residents and developers must coordinate who will pay for the new costs.

Today, the real resistance faced by U.S. data centers is no longer just “whether AI chips can be made faster”, but whether local communities are willing to bear the cost of electricity, water, land and quality of life.

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