Welcome to “data center summer.”
We’ve spent the last generation with the small rectangles of mobile phones glued to our sweaty palms.
Their increasing sophistication and the onset of artificial intelligence have led to the rise of vast monoliths — acres of drab industrial buildings full of computer chips and wiring in more of our backyards. All of this digital infrastructure humming away inside nondescript concrete boxes is needed to fuel the flow of continuous information to our smartphones and Meta Glasses.
You know, so we can post a selfie, consult AI for personal therapy advice, or place a dumb bet on Polymarket.
As Heatmap puts it, “the data center boom is everywhere you look in U.S. economic and emissions data.” There are more than 10,000 data centers worldwide, most of them in the U.S. Virginia is home to the highest concentration of data centers anywhere, with at least 685, including maybe one-third of the world’s hyperscale data centers depending on how you measure the threshold between big and small.
But new planned construction of data centers looks to be heaviest in the Midwest and South, so this issue matters to flyover country as much or more than the coasts.
Step aside, Great Wall of China and Eisenhower’s interstate highway system.
Put another way (by the New York Times), “There is no parallel in American history for the boom underway in the construction of data centers, fueled by companies with functionally unlimited cash that are racing to supply skyrocketing demand for their AI models.”
This AI frenzy in many ways has been propping up our economy. One measure is a recent J.P. Morgan analysis showing how tech sector capital spending by late 2025 was responsible for as much as 45% of U.S. GDP growth — compared to less than 5% in early 2023.
Last week I rode RAGBRAI, the world’s premiere bicycling touring ride that crosses Iowa each summer. Our team met near the Microsoft data center campus on the south side of the Des Moines metro, drove near Google’s massive complex in Council Bluffs, and ended the weeklong bike ride in Dubuque, one of a growing number of cities considering its own data center ordinance.
My fellow Iowa Writers Collaborative member Cheryl Tevis has chronicled some of the data center debate in counties and cities around Iowa, including the city of Palo within Linn County in eastern Iowa.
This deserves to be called data center summer because the tsunami of construction is being met with a big wave of backlash.
Last fall, Americans were evenly split — 43% for vs. 42% against data centers, as polled by Heatmap. In a matter of months the festering disdain over data centers opened up a massive 50-point gap, with only 21% in favor vs. 71% opposed. (Gallup has echoed those results.)
Even country music icon Willie Nelson weighed in last month from Texas: “The last thing we need is a loud, water thieving, light polluting data center anywhere near our town (or any others for that matter).”
Data center impact is rippling through the states:
Thirty-eight states offer tax incentives for data centers, but, tracking with public sentiment, the policy momentum has executed a tight U-turn to accelerate in the opposite direction.
At least 75 data center projects worth about $130 billion were blocked by local opposition in the first quarter of 2026.
Last month, New York became the first state (through executive order) to establish the first statewide moratorium on hyperscale data centers. Lawmakers are also considering a “Grid Acceleration Fund” to require builders to invest in infrastructure and clean energy.
Maine passed a moratorium in April, but it was vetoed by the governor.
At least 15 states legislatures have taken the initial step of introducing moratoriums.
Meanwhile, companies such as Google and BlackRock are funding electrician training programs in key states to ensure skilled labor keeps pace with their construction ambitions, provided they can overcome the growing opposition.
The New York Times reported how Meta navigated state and local government to win approval for the largest development in Louisiana’s history: a $50 billion data center to cover six miles and use seven times the energy of New Orleans.
Data centers’ job creation is mostly confined to the construction phase, with the largest facilities run by few staff (hundreds, not thousands) relative to their size.
I use AI daily in my work, and I appreciate it because I try to keep a clear-eyed sense of how it can supplement human imagination and ingenuity without ever replacing us. One of my frustrations with the modern AI debate is that we seem to be caught between extremes of tone — AI leading to either tech utopia or human apocalypse.
I guess this is consistent with today’s polarized political discourse. But how about we see AI as a utility to be well governed?
It’s certainly not a universal panacea for the business community. About a month ago I chatted with Raygun owner Mike Draper, who treats AI the way he treats most fads out of corporate America: with a raised eyebrow and T-shirt ready to mock it.
Not every business model needs AI. Draper goes so far as to clarify his AI stance on Raygun’s home page: “We love our creative process and are not going to turn that over to a robot.” When you see his T-shirts emblazoned with phrases like “Will Iowa water give data centers cancer?” it’s entirely human humor. Raygun is about to open its 12th store in downtown Chicago, where there’s no room to squeeze a hyperscale data center between the Bean and Lake Michigan.
Draper also says economic developers — in Iowa or elsewhere — don’t need to desperately chase AI and data centers. He sees public incentives for data center construction as “the same bait-and-switch over and over again.” Iowa could more imaginatively double down on alternatives such as solar and become “the Saudi Arabia of clean energy,” he argues.
He raises good points that seem to resonate widely. As we’ve seen with the carbon-capture pipeline issue in Iowa, data center opposition cuts across traditional partisan divides. The recent Gallup poll showed opposition to data centers at 75% among Democrats, 74% for independents, and 63% for Republicans.
A recent letter to the editor of the Washington Post touted “transparency and a seat at the table before decisions are made, not after” for rural communities — from the less-than-insurgent president of the Missouri Farm Bureau.
As Willie alluded, the top reason cited by data center opponents tends to be water use, followed by the strain on the electric grid (and utility rates).
But the Post editorial board also reminds us to keep our wits about us as we toss out endless statistics in this debate. All U.S. data centers use less than one half of 1 percent of freshwater. And “Google’s thirstiest facility, in Iowa, uses approximately what some golf courses do.”
Leaky pipes are probably responsible for more annual water use/waste than AI at this point. AI’s thirst isn’t insignificant, but it’s not yet the leading threat to our water supply.
Call it data center summer, but don’t expect an autumn cooldown. New York's moratorium won't be the last. More legislatures will take up the fight when they reconvene, and don't be surprised if data centers become the wedge issue of the fall campaign season, not just the summer's.
A decade from now, how much of the scenery along my rural Iowa bike rides will be data centers standing shoulder to shoulder with the ubiquitous barns and grain bins?
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Kyle, thank you for this powerful post. We need to know. You're helping me know.