“We want a moratorium”: the Democratic tidal wave in the midterms threatens the expansion of data centers in the United States

“Data centers in space will become particularly attractive.” The declaration, signed by Elon Musk in reaction to the midterm results, sums up in itself the thrill running through the artificial intelligence (AI) sector this Wednesday morning.

With the very large defeat of Donald Trump and the Republicans in many states of the country, many data center projects carried out by companies in the sector are in theory threatened. Before the midterm elections, around forty local proposals concerning these critical infrastructures for the development of AI were put to the vote in around fifteen states, according to the Ballotpedia website.

In Ohio, Kansas, California and New Hampshire, proposals tended to pause or even completely stop new projects.

After reading the first results reported in the American press, at least 14 cities in Ohio voted on Tuesday evening to ban...