Why does everyone suddenly hate data centers?
Friends —
It took me a while to figure out why data centers were striking such a nerve in America.
We’re not talking about oil refineries or pig farms here — we’re talking about warehouses full of computers. How did buildings full of computers become such a contentious political issue?
The complaints also seemed random. Some said it was about them using too much electricity. Others were worried about them using water or making noise.
And usually, the more someone learns about a scary-sounding thing, the calmer they get. Not here. With data centers, the more folks learn, the angrier they get. Gallup found Americans are now more opposed to a data center going up in their town than a nuclear power plant.
And these fights have turned genuinely dark — one public official in Indianapolis who supported a local data center woke up to gunshots and bullet holes across the front of his house.
I didn’t want to make a “Big Tech is evil” takedown, because the honest version is messier. Some of the anger I found is dead-on. Some of it — the water panic especially — I’m not convinced is warranted.
What stuck with me is that the data center has become a stand-in for something bigger. It’s a physical thing people can actually stand in front of and fight, in an age when most of what unsettles us, like Big Tech and AI, doesn’t have one real location.
So here’s the one a lot of you have been asking for. I’d love to know what you think.
– Ken
here is my personal take: i worked for Wells Fargo for five years in "real data centers"; ones that were planned and approved by a longer and thorough process. the data centers of 2026 typically go through a mickey mouse approval process that is a quick rubber stamp. this process creates environmental and grid problems and seems to offer little if any real value to the community. the wells data centers did not appear to have any of these issues.
Judging from the comments you received on your youtube video there is a phenomenal amount of ignorance about data centers.
When I have discussed this with people online they don't seem to understand that they're already using data centers. When I participate in a facebook group and point out that they're using a medium that owns over thirty data centers around the world and is building more it doesn't register.
They don't understand that data centers already permeate most of our lives, whether it's a credit card transaction or streaming pornhub. I wonder how some of those commenters might feel if they knew about the latter and the trail that it leaves.
There's also this persistent bizarre meme that a data center is just someone else's computer, which is an incredibly simplistic concept. I wish my own computer had one tenth of the capability of a data center, both in terms of computing, power and cybersecurity.
There's a lot more heat than light here. I think that the way things are pointing the most prevalent solution will be an SMR and closed loop cooling.
That's not to say that certain geographic areas may have variations on the theme. I live in Texas and have been following the various fights, especially between Dallas and East Texas as well as the concerns in West Texas. They are two very different problems and the solutions will involve different implementations.
Dallas wants to draw water from East Texas, and of course East Texas does not like this concept at all. Additionally, when you consider the problems with permitting, easements, rights of way, constructing the pipelines, et cetera, it may not be economically feasible. But bend over because another pissed-off billionaire wants to move his business to Dallas.
In West Texas there is no adjacent water supply. The aquifers are stressed. It is ranch territory and livelihoods depend on water for the livestock. It's not just higher water bills; it's whether or not you slaughter your livestock. A solution for that area will be very different from Dallas.
Houston has a different set of circumstances. It has a refinery industry that runs 24/7. It's also near a source of salt water. So Houston has a problem with energy requirement around the clock, but also has access to water for desalinization. That's a totally different set of problems.
This is a dinner table conversation and somehow the facts need to be laid out for that conversation without spin. Expect pushback because all solutions are compromises. People may agree that something has to be done about data centers, but they won't necessarily agree about the implementation of that concept.