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# Data Centers Are on the Midterm Ballot, Many in a “Referendum Belt” of Rural Towns That Have Never Had a Data Center
- URL: https://datacatalyst.org/data-centers-are-on-the-midterm-ballot-many-in-a-referendum-belt-of-rural-towns-that-have-never-had-a-data-center/
- Published: 2026-11-03T12:40:25.000Z
- Updated: 2026-11-03T12:40:25.000Z
- Description: Voters settle dozens of data center fights today, many in rural towns that have never hosted one. Clear statewide and national rules can keep America's AI buildout on track.
- Author: Mark Drapeau
- Tags: Compute, 2026 election, #hero-immersive

Four of America's largest tech companies, Amazon, Microsoft, Alphabet (Google, Waymo) and Meta (Facebook, Instagram), will collectively spend [roughly $750 billion this year](https://news.bgov.com/international-trade/the-staggering-costs-of-a-single-data-center-from-land-to-chips?ref=datacatalyst.org), mostly on data centers that supply the computing power behind AI. As a share of the economy, that is [more than the United States spent building its railroads in the 1850s or its interstate highways](https://finviz.com/news/304995/amazon-alphabet-microsoft-meta-ai-spending-makes-up-as-much-of-gdp-as-building-all-american-railroads-from-1850-through-1859?ref=datacatalyst.org). OpenAI and Anthropic, the two largest independent AI labs, are spending on a similar scale. Anthropic (Claude) has committed [more than $540 billion](https://fortune.com/2026/10/26/anthropics-s1-ipo-reveals-the-inner-workings-of-its-fast-evolving-compute-strategy/?ref=datacatalyst.org) to computing capacity in the coming years, and OpenAI (ChatGPT) is building its own network of giant data centers, called [Stargate](https://intuitionlabs.ai/articles/openai-stargate-datacenter-details?ref=datacatalyst.org), with partners including Oracle and SoftBank. Incredibly, all that spending, together with the equipment and software inside these warehouse-sized buildings, accounts for [about a third of U.S. economic growth this year](https://think.ing.com/downloads/pdf/opinion/how-much-is-ai-contributing-to-us-economic-growth?ref=datacatalyst.org).

Most new data center construction is now moving out of cities and into the countryside, and that trend is a big reason opposition to data centers has grown so fast in 2026\. While nearly nine in ten of today's data centers are in urban areas, [two-thirds of the more than 1,500 now planned are in rural areas](https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2026/04/13/most-new-data-centers-in-the-us-are-coming-to-rural-areas/?ref=datacatalyst.org), and four in ten are in counties that have never had a data center. Most Americans don't want one nearby. [Six in ten Americans](https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2026/09/22/americans-views-of-data-centers-have-turned-more-negative/?ref=datacatalyst.org) say they would be uncomfortable with a new data center in their local area, and when [a co/efficient and Veleonis poll](https://dashboards.coefficient.org/ai-study-generic/?ref=datacatalyst.org#datacenters) asked voters what they would want to know about a proposed local data center, a third of those who answered said they would oppose it no matter what. Local opposition blocked or delayed about as many data center projects from [January through March of 2026](https://datacenterwatch.org/q1-2026?ref=datacatalyst.org) as in all of 2025, and [another $68 billion worth of projects](https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/data-centers/local-opposition-blocked-usd68-billion-worth-of-data-center-projects-in-the-second-quarter-of-2026-data-center-investments-reportedly-still-on-track-to-hit-usd32-trillion-by-2050?ref=datacatalyst.org) were blocked or delayed from April through June. That is the central tension of this election season: the AI buildout is driving much of America's economic growth, while a growing number of voters, and some of the officials they elect, want to temper data center growth where they live.

**What today's midterm elections will decide for data centers and the U.S. AI buildout**

Today's midterm elections will decide who holds the offices that set the rules for data centers going forward, starting with governors. Thirty-six states are electing a governor today, and governors can unilaterally affect data center projects. For example, in July, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul imposed [the first statewide moratorium](https://www.jonesday.com/es/insights/2026/07/new-york-enacts-first-statewide-data-center-moratorium?ref=datacatalyst.org) on new large data centers, and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has [frozen new grid connections and state permits](https://www.texastribune.org/2026/09/21/texas-data-center-moratorium-water-energy/?ref=datacatalyst.org) for data centers until state regulators audit them. Meanwhile, state legislatures write the tax breaks that attract data centers and the laws that could pause their expansion. Lawmakers in [at least 14 states](https://ionanalytics.com/insights/debtwire/data-center-moratorium-threats-incentive-pullbacks-energy-costs-dominate-ytd26-state-level-legislative-activity/?ref=datacatalyst.org) tried to pass a moratorium this year, and the Maine and Vermont legislatures successfully passed such laws (which were later vetoed). And while Congress doesn't typically weigh in on specific data center projects, whichever party controls each chamber will decide whether committees champion or investigate the AI industry writ large. Indeed, Democratic Sens. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Chris Van Hollen of Maryland and Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut have already [opened an investigation into data centers and household electricity costs](https://www.warren.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/senator-warren-lawmakers-open-investigation-into-big-tech-data-centers-role-in-driving-up-families-utility-costs/?ref=datacatalyst.org), and Republican Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri joined Warren in [pressing federal energy officials](https://www.warren.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/warren-hawley-secure-mandatory-energy-use-reporting-requirements-for-data-centers?ref=datacatalyst.org) to require data centers to report how much energy they use.

More under the radar, today's election also decides who sits on state utility commissions, the policy boards that determine whether the cost of the new power a data center needs falls on the data center's owner or is spread across every household's monthly bill. Governors appoint the commissioners in most states, so most gubernatorial races are also de facto races for control of the utility commission. (In a few states, legislatures appoint utility commissioners.) But in [nine states](https://news.ballotpedia.org/2026/10/26/nine-states-are-holding-public-service-commission-elections-in-2026-with-two-expected-to-be-battlegrounds/?ref=datacatalyst.org) today, voters are electing these relatively obscure utility commissioners directly.

On top of all that, residents in dozens of communities are voting directly on data centers themselves today, and every one of the similar local votes held earlier this year [has gone against the industry](https://finance.yahoo.com/economy/policy/articles/ballotpedia-releases-50-ballot-measures-141700159.html?ref=datacatalyst.org). In all, voters in 10 states will decide on [41 local data center measures](https://ballotpedia.org/Data%5Fcenter-related%5Fballot%5Fmeasures,%5F2026?ref=datacatalyst.org). Some of these local measures would [ban data centers outright](https://news.ballotpedia.org/2026/09/21/ohio-leads-states-in-number-of-local-ballot-measures-on-data-centers-for-2026/?ref=datacatalyst.org). Others would overturn a local government's decision to rezone land for a specific data center, require voters to approve any large data center before it can be built, or ask voters a nonbinding question about whether they want one.

**A U.S. data center "referendum belt" highlights an intriguing resistance pattern**

These local votes on data centers, and campaigns and other efforts to force them, are not spread evenly across the nation. They are mostly concentrated in a band of states, which we call the "referendum belt," running roughly diagonally across the country from Southern California through Kansas and the Midwest into New England. The middle of the U.S., however, is where most are concentrated: Ohio has 21 measures, [more than any other state](https://www.usnews.com/news/politics/articles/2026-10-29/ai-data-center-boom-faces-backlash-at-us-ballot-box?ref=datacatalyst.org), and Illinois, Wisconsin, Michigan and Kansas have several of them too. At the northeastern end of the referendum belt, [at least eight Maine towns](https://www.bangordailynews.com/2026/10/28/politics/maine-town-elections-data-center-bans/?ref=datacatalyst.org) are voting today on whether to pause or ban data centers.

What explains this pattern? It isn't simple party politics, since states in the referendum belt clearly cut across party lines. Of the 13 states that put local data center measures on the ballot this year, [eight voted for Donald Trump in 2024 and five voted for Kamala Harris](https://www.archives.gov/electoral-college/2024?ref=datacatalyst.org).

Alternatively, one might hypothesize that the more data centers a region already has or is building, the more its residents push back at the ballot box, but that's not the case, either. For instance, while local pushback likely exists, the data center referendum belt doesn't include the [two states with the most data centers](https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2026/04/13/most-new-data-centers-in-the-us-are-coming-to-rural-areas/?ref=datacatalyst.org), Virginia and Texas. Virginia is [North America's largest data center market](https://www.cbre.com/press-releases/north-american-data-center-demand-continues-to-outpace-supply-despite-record-construction-activity?ref=datacatalyst.org) and has nearly 400 operating data centers, while Texas has nearly 300 data centers and had [at least 248 more planned](https://www.texastribune.org/2026/06/26/texas-data-center-guide-what-you-need-to-know/?ref=datacatalyst.org) as of June. Neither state has had a single direct local vote on a specific data center project this year.

What seems to explain the referendum belt is a combination of three local conditions, and residents have the ability to push back hardest where all three meet. The first is a data center planned on farmland or other rural land that the local government must rezone for industrial use. The second is a jurisdiction that has never hosted a data center before. The third is a state law that lets residents force a direct public vote on their local government's decision to approve the project.

Let's unpack this. The first condition is a data center planned on rural land that has to be rezoned before an industrial project such as a data center or power plant can be built there. The newest AI data centers are enormous: a single campus can need [hundreds of acres](https://www.credaily.com/?p=223466&ref=datacatalyst.org) of flat land [close to high-voltage power lines](https://dailyyonder.com/we-mapped-rural-data-center-development-and-opposition-heres-what-we-found/2026/06/29/?ref=datacatalyst.org), and in much of the country, farmland could do the job. The Midwest has a lot of it, and its utilities can often connect a new data center to the grid faster than utilities in (say) Northern Virginia, where a large new connection can take [about seven years](https://www.constructionowners.com/insights/the-next-data-center-hotspots-where-construction-is-heading-as-northern-virginia-hits-its-limits?ref=datacatalyst.org). But building on farmland requires the local government to rezone it from agricultural to industrial use, which makes it a public decision by elected officials, and thus presents communities with ways to challenge it.

The second, and perhaps most surprising, condition is a jurisdiction that has never had a data center, which describes much of the new construction: four in ten planned data centers are in counties that have none today. People who already live near data centers know what they get from them. In Loudoun County, Virginia, which has hosted data centers for more than two decades, data centers pay [about 40 percent of the county budget](https://www.loudoun.gov/6408/Data-Centers-The-Loudoun-Story?ref=datacatalyst.org), which keeps residents' [property taxes lower](https://www.loudoun.gov/DocumentCenter/View/213222/FY-2026-Proposed-Budget-Presentation?ref=datacatalyst.org) than they would otherwise be. In a town that has never had one, however, residents have only the developer's word about benefits that, for now, exist only on paper, understandably deserving skepticism. Meanwhile, residents are being asked to accept large industrial buildings, with noise, heavy water use, and big power demands. [Research by Daniel Yue and Yiyang Zeng at Georgia Tech's Scheller College of Business](https://hg.gatech.edu/node/691073?ref=datacatalyst.org) suggests that rural skepticism has some basis. They found that a county's first data center raises local employment, wages and business activity on average, but mostly in metropolitan areas. Rural counties, in contrast, saw negligible gains, and in places where the researchers could measure it cleanly, local electricity prices rose.

The third condition is the ability of residents to force a public vote when their local government rezones land for a data center. Ohio illustrates how this works. When a township's elected trustees vote to rezone land, residents have 30 days to collect signatures from registered voters equal to [15 percent of the votes cast in that township in the last governor's race](https://www.supremecourt.ohio.gov/rod/docs/pdf/0/2024/2024-Ohio-379.pdf?ref=datacatalyst.org). If they collect enough, the rezoning goes on the ballot, and the township's voters decide whether it stands. In a typical rural township, that 15 percent can be just a few hundred people, which means a community can easily force a public vote that could kill a multibillion-dollar project, and out-of-town data center stakeholders may not see the counter-campaign coming until it's too late.

The example of Augusta Township, Michigan, a farming community of [about 7,000 people](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augusta%5FCharter%5FTownship,%5FMichigan?ref=datacatalyst.org) southeast of Ann Arbor, illustrates all three conditions at work. In July 2025, the township's board [voted unanimously to rezone 522 acres of farmland](https://planetdetroit.org/?p=31416&ref=datacatalyst.org) so that Thor Equities, a New York real estate firm, could build a $1 billion data center there, even though the township's own planning commission had [recommended against it](https://planetdetroit.org/?p=24147&ref=datacatalyst.org). Township officials pointed to millions of dollars a year in new tax revenue for the township and its schools. Many residents viewed this as a giant industrial site on pristine farmland, and they worried about [noise, pollution and higher electric bills](https://insideclimatenews.org/news/09102025/michigan-town-effots-to-stop-data-center/?ref=datacatalyst.org). Within weeks, they [formed a group called Protect Augusta Charter Township](https://bridgemi.com/michigan-environment-watch/tiny-michigan-town-hopes-to-stop-data-center-with-ballot-initiative/?ref=datacatalyst.org) and started collecting signatures. They needed only [561 signatures to force a vote](https://michiganadvance.com/2025/08/26/petition-signatures-submitted-seeking-washtenaw-county-data-center-zoning-vote/?ref=datacatalyst.org), and within about a month they turned in almost twice that. On August 4, 2026, [nearly 90 percent of voters overturned the rezoning](https://ballotpedia.org/Augusta%5FTownship%2C%5FMichigan%2C%5FRezone%5FAgricultural%5FResidential%5Fto%5FGeneral%5FIndustrial%5Ffor%5FData%5FCenter%5FReferendum%5F%28August%5F2026%29?ref=datacatalyst.org), overruling the township board, and some residents have since [launched a recall campaign](https://planetdetroit.org/2026/07/augusta-data-center-battle-ballot/?ref=datacatalyst.org) against the very board members who approved it. All of this happened in about a year.

Ohio is the "buckle" of the referendum belt because it has all three conditions in abundance. Data center developers are spreading out from the Columbus metro area into nearby towns such as [Sunbury, where voters will decide today](https://www.usnews.com/news/politics/articles/2026-10-29/ai-data-center-boom-faces-backlash-at-us-ballot-box?ref=datacatalyst.org) whether to ban the kind of large data center Amazon has proposed there. Ohio law lets township residents force votes on rezonings, and a statewide group called Conserve Ohio has [helped residents across the state draft their own ballot measures](https://stateline.org/2026/10/12/data-center-backlash-set-to-sway-midterm-elections/?ref=datacatalyst.org). The same combination of farmland, first-time host towns and township referendum rights appears across the central U.S. states of Michigan, Illinois and Wisconsin.

Importantly, local opposition, to the extent it exists, takes a different form in states where residents have limited power to force a vote on a data center project they don't like. Sometimes local resistance effectively goes nowhere. [Virginia allows local referendums only where state law specifically authorizes them](https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/title24.2/chapter6/section24.2-684/?ref=datacatalyst.org), and Taylor, Texas, [ruled a residents' petition for a data center ban ineligible](https://www.taylortx.gov/m/newsflash/home/detail/2064?ref=datacatalyst.org) because Texas law does not let voters change zoning. Elsewhere, Indiana [does not allow citizen-led ballot measures](https://www.aol.com/articles/ohio-group-trying-ban-data-100206611.html?ref=datacatalyst.org) at all, so residents there have pressed their county commissioners with anti-data center sentiment, and in some counties the commissioners have [rejected large rezonings on farmland](https://www.insideindianabusiness.com/articles/not-a-reasonable-and-prudent-location-kosciusko-county-commissioners-shut-down-data-center-plans?ref=datacatalyst.org). And in Texas, where there are no such data center referendums, negative societal pressure has nevertheless gone all the way to Gov. Greg Abbott, whose [data center freeze](https://www.texastribune.org/2026/09/21/texas-data-center-moratorium-water-energy/?ref=datacatalyst.org) now covers the whole state.

**The highest-stakes races for data centers on today's U.S. midterm ballot**

Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, Georgia and Louisiana are hosting the races most likely to change where data centers get built next. Ohio voters will decide on 21 local measures and choose a new governor, who will appoint the members of the state utility commission. Both candidates have proposed pausing new data centers until conditions are met: Democrat Amy Acton until they [cover 100 percent of their utility costs](https://www.tribtoday.com/news/local-news/2026/08/ramaswamy-acton-take-stances-on-data-centers/?ref=datacatalyst.org), and Republican Vivek Ramaswamy until they [pay electric bills for the communities around them](https://www.news5cleveland.com/news/politics/ohio-politics/ohio-candidates-seeking-to-regulate-data-centers-both-invest-in-them?ref=datacatalyst.org). Michigan's next governor will appoint new members to the three-member utility commission that previously [fast-tracked the contracts to power](https://www.wlns.com/your-local-election-hq/ryan-friedrichs-related-companies-benson/amp/?ref=datacatalyst.org) the OpenAI and Oracle data center in Saline Township, and both candidates, Democrat Jocelyn Benson and Republican John James, [support a pause](https://www.clickondetroit.com/news/local/2026/10/07/benson-james-offer-contrasting-visions-in-first-michigan-governor-debate/?ref=datacatalyst.org) on new data centers, which [a bipartisan group of state lawmakers](https://www.legislature.mi.gov/Bills/Bill?ObjectName=2026-HB-5594&ref=datacatalyst.org) had already proposed in February. In Wisconsin, [control of the governor's office and both chambers of the Legislature](https://upnorthnewswi.com/news/politics/the-wi-legislature-failed-to-improve-data-center-oversight-so-now-what/?ref=datacatalyst.org) is up in the air after lawmakers tried and failed to enact any data center bill this year.

Additionally, two utility commission races could change how the largest data center projects in the South get power. In Georgia, [party control of the elected commission](https://news.ballotpedia.org/2026/08/10/partisan-control-of-georgia-public-service-commission-at-stake-in-november-election/?ref=datacatalyst.org) is on the ballot just months after Georgia Power won approval to [supply a giant OpenAI campus](https://ajc.com/business/2026/08/georgia-power-deal-to-power-openai-data-center-near-savannah-is-approved/?ref=datacatalyst.org). Meanwhile, in Louisiana, voters will fill [two open seats](https://www.wrkf.org/2026-08-12/louisiana-psc-kills-ruling-that-would-force-meta-to-turn-over-key-data-center-information?ref=datacatalyst.org) on a commission that voted 3-1 in August to let Meta keep secret how many permanent jobs its Richland Parish campus will create and how much electricity it will use, and that will soon decide whether Entergy can build [seven more gas power plants](https://lailluminator.com/?p=34533&ref=datacatalyst.org) to serve Meta.

**Business and policy implications of the U.S. data center project battles**

The tech giants, AI labs and financiers paying for this buildout are counting on these many data center projects being finished on time, and so are global investors. Diversified big tech firms Amazon, Microsoft, Alphabet (Google, Waymo) and Meta (Facebook, Instagram) need new data centers to keep up with the high demand for AI tools and cloud services, and Google's chief executive has even told investors the company is [short of computing power](https://om.co/2026/04/30/what-i-learned-about-hyperscalers-ai-spend/?ref=datacatalyst.org).

The newer AI labs are even more exposed to data center pushback risk, because they have [mostly rented their computing power](https://the-decoder.com/anthropic-is-building-its-first-data-center-team-outside-the-us/?ref=datacatalyst.org) from others. Anthropic, valued at [$965 billion in May](https://www.datacenterdynamics.com/en/news/anthropic-confidentially-files-for-ipo-with-the-us-sec/?ref=datacatalyst.org), made its IPO filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (known as an S-1) public a week ago, and it specifically cites [moratoriums on new data center construction](https://www.cnbc.com/2026/10/26/anthropic-ipo-live-updates-ai-s-1-filing.html?ref=datacatalyst.org) across the United States as a risk to its growth. OpenAI, valued at [$852 billion in March](https://news.rthk.hk/rthk/en/component/k2/1856858-20260602.htm?ref=datacatalyst.org), is preparing to go public as well, and its [Stargate](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0111282/?ref=datacatalyst.org) data center network includes [campuses in Ohio and Michigan](https://intuitionlabs.ai/articles/openai-stargate-datacenter-details?ref=datacatalyst.org), two referendum belt states where residents can force local votes.

Tech firms are already evolving their strategies for how and where they approach host communities. Microsoft, OpenAI and Anthropic each pledged early this year to [pay the full cost of the power their data centers need](https://the-decoder.com/?p=32080&ref=datacatalyst.org), so that local consumer electric bills do not rise because of them, and OpenAI now promises a [community plan for every Stargate site](https://www.theregister.com/2026/01/21/stargate%5Fopenai%5Fcommunity%5Fplans/?ref=datacatalyst.org). On March 4, at a [White House event with President Trump](https://www.whitehouse.gov/videos/president-trump-participates-in-a-roundtable-on-ratepayer-protection-pledge/?ref=datacatalyst.org), Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft, OpenAI, Oracle and xAI (part of SpaceX) signed the [Ratepayer Protection Pledge](https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2026/03/ratepayer-protection-pledge/?ref=datacatalyst.org), [promising to pay for the power plants and grid upgrades](https://capacityglobal.com/?p=10010679&ref=datacatalyst.org) their data centers require. [More than 200 organizations](https://www.whitehouse.gov/ratepayer-protection-pledge/?ref=datacatalyst.org), including utilities, data center developers and state governors, have since signed on as well.

For companies building, financing, or leasing new data center capacity, the strategic and political problem is that a referendum usually arrives after the most expensive commitments have already been made. A typical data center project starts with an option on land, which is a contract that gives the developer the right to buy a property later at an agreed price, and a request to the local utility for electricity. The project then moves through local votes on rezoning and tax breaks, followed by power contracts, leases with the companies that will use the building, and financing. Making things more complicated, utility companies may now demand serious financial commitments early. AEP Ohio, for example, requires new data centers to [pay for at least 85 percent of the power they request](https://digital-release.nbc4i.com/?p=2661869&ref=datacatalyst.org) each month, whether they use it or not. By the time residents sign a petition, a developer may hold the land, a place in line for power and the approval of every local official, but a 30-day signature drive in a rural township can undo all of that preparation and financial commitment, not to mention the projections of investors and analysts.

But anyone with a stake in a new data center, from developers and construction firms to tenants, lenders, investors, analysts, economists and local officials, can see much of this "referendum belt" risk coming. The three conditions become three plain questions. Is the land zoned for farming, such that it must be rezoned? Would this be the jurisdiction's first data center? Does state law let residents petition to put the rezoning to a public vote? When the answer to all three is yes, the site has a real chance of ending up on a local ballot, where angry residents could kill the project or severely delay it. Even in the best case, the project's backers will have to spend time and money fighting their own campaign on what can feel like enemy territory. Developers and their tenants can build that possibility into their timelines and budgets; investors, analysts and economists into their forecasts; and local officials into how early and openly they bring a project to the public.

**Pros and cons of alternatives to building AI data centers in rural America**

A simple solution to rural resistance would seem to be to just keep building data centers in the urban areas where they already exist, but practically, cities and suburbs (where most data centers are today) can take only a small part of the massive new demand. Data centers that answer people's requests in real time, which the industry calls "inference," do in fact work best close to the people they serve, and they can fit into [smaller buildings in and around cities](https://mostpolicyinitiative.org/science-note/data-center-land-use/?ref=datacatalyst.org). The giant data center campuses used to train AI models, however, need hundreds of acres and far more electricity than [crowded urban grids can spare](https://cobank.com/knowledge-exchange/all-day-digital/all-day-digital-s3e05?ref=datacatalyst.org). Old industrial sites can help: Pennsylvania's largest former coal plant, Homer City, is being turned into a [3,200-acre data center campus](https://www.alleghenyfront.org/homer-city-pennsylvania-gas-plant-data-center-ai/?ref=datacatalyst.org) with its own gas power plant. Underground sites are real but small. The best-known one, in a former Pennsylvania limestone mine, can use [about 40 megawatts of power](https://baxtel.com/data-center/iron-mountain-the-underground?ref=datacatalyst.org) at full size, while for comparison Meta's new campus in Louisiana is planned for [5 gigawatts](https://lailluminator.com/?p=34553&ref=datacatalyst.org), more than 100 times larger.

Nationally, the referendum belt pattern favors places where governments have already agreed to host data centers and set the rules in advance. The U.S. federal government has begun leasing its own land for AI data centers with their own power plants, including [former uranium plants in Kentucky and Ohio](https://wtop.com/national/2026/07/federal-government-to-turn-a-kentucky-uranium-plant-into-an-ai-data-center-and-gas-power-complex/?ref=datacatalyst.org). Nearby, Canada and Mexico are courting U.S. data center projects, although both face local backlash of their own, from [Alberta](https://www.energyconnects.com/news/utilities/2026/september/carney-s-push-to-build-canadian-data-centers-is-running-into-backlash/?ref=datacatalyst.org) to [Querétaro](https://mexicobusiness.news/cloudanddata/news/queretaro-data-center-boom-triggers-water-power-backlash?ref=datacatalyst.org). A few companies are testing data centers at sea. Samsung Heavy Industries aims to deploy [its first floating data center by 2028](https://thetechcapital.com/samsung-heavy-industries-targets-2028-launch-for-floating-data-centre-push?ref=datacatalyst.org), and Karpowership, a Turkish company that runs floating power plants, is developing [floating data centers powered by its own ships](https://karpowership.com/dataship?ref=datacatalyst.org). Others are looking to orbit. The startup Starcloud [put a data center chip into space](https://www.unite.ai/?p=455376&ref=datacatalyst.org) last year, and Elon Musk's SpaceX, which bought xAI in February, has [asked federal regulators to approve up to a million satellites](https://www.datacenterdynamics.com/en/news/spacex-files-for-million-satellite-orbital-ai-data-center-megaconstellation?ref=datacatalyst.org) that would work as orbital data centers. These options are advancing quickly, but the AI buildout needs gigawatts of new capacity within the next few years, faster than any of the alternatives can yet deliver. So most of the coming decade's data centers will still likely be built in American communities that have to agree to them.

Many other countries are likely to take data center projects if offered, along with the money and strategic advantage that come with them. A U.S. company’s data center built abroad sends its construction spending, tax payments and electricity purchases to the host country, which is why governments compete for them with tax breaks and fast approvals. American AI companies are already building abroad. Anthropic's IPO filing says it wants to [build more data centers outside the United States](https://www.cnbc.com/2026/10/26/anthropic-ipo-live-updates-ai-s-1-filing.html?ref=datacatalyst.org) to reduce its reliance on a single country, and in August it signed a [$10 billion deal for computing power](https://mpost.io/anthropic-signs-10b-six-year-compute-deal-with-nvidia-backed-volta-for-norway-data-center/?ref=datacatalyst.org) at a hydropower-fed data center in Norway. OpenAI announced its own Norwegian Stargate project last year, but it later [stepped back](https://the-decoder.com/openais-european-stargate-plans-shrink-as-microsoft-and-google-take-over-capacity/?ref=datacatalyst.org), and Microsoft quickly agreed to buy the computing capacity at the site. In Abu Dhabi, OpenAI, Oracle, Nvidia and Cisco are working with the Emirati firm G42 on [Stargate UAE](https://gulfnews.com/business/markets/stargate-uae-first-phase-of-200mw-to-complete-by-2026-1.500310364?ref=datacatalyst.org), a 1-gigawatt campus whose first phase is due to come online by the end of this year.

Building abroad also places computing power, along with the data and AI models inside it, under another government's jurisdiction to some degree. While the U.S. currently hosts about three-quarters of the world's high-performance computing power, [national security experts warn](https://www.hudson.org/technology/ai-revolution-could-become-national-security-disaster-if-we-arent-careful-alexandra-seymour?ref=datacatalyst.org) that state and local moratoriums could hand that advantage to China and other geopolitical rivals. China has [far more cheap electricity to offer data centers](https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2026/5/28/chinas-secret-weapon-in-ai-race-with-us-lots-of-cheap-energy?ref=datacatalyst.org), and public opposition to its government's building plans is heavily restricted.

U.S. state governments could help growth by setting clear rules for every data center before any land is bought. Those rules would say who pays for the power plants and power lines a data center needs, how much water it can use and what the host jurisdiction gets in return, so that every developer and every resident knows the terms from the start. Florida already offers one model of this. A law signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis in May, [Senate Bill 484](https://www.flgov.com/eog/news/press/2026/governor-ron-desantis-signs-law-protect-floridians-subsidizing-data-centers?ref=datacatalyst.org), requires large data centers in Florida to pay the full cost of their electricity service while leaving local governments the final say on where they can be built. A single set of statewide rules, or better still national ones, is easier for developers to plan around than a patchwork of dozens of local votes, even if those rules are stricter. Some of the officials elected today will decide whether those rules get written.