$68 Billion in Data Center Projects Blocked or Delayed in 3 Month Period

Researchers have revealed that 45 data center projects worth $68 billion were blocked or delayed by local pushback across the United States between April and June.

Bloomberg reports that the projects, tracked by Data Center Watch, a project of the AI intelligence company 10a Labs, made up more than half of all new large-scale developments the group monitored during that period. Data Center Watch’s lead analyst, Miquel Vila, said opposition to the industry is broadening. “New groups continue to emerge, opposition is appearing across a wide range of states and jurisdictions, and online petition signatures continue to grow,” he said.

The numbers back that up. Data Center Watch counted 843 opposition groups spread across 49 states; Hawaii is the only state without one. About 30 statehouses have introduced or adopted rules covering data center siting, electricity use or water consumption. In Tennessee, a petition against a single data center project drew more than 500,000 signatures on Change.org, more than a third of all signatures collected on the platform that quarter, according to Data Center Watch.

The first quarter of 2026 was worse. Breitbart News reported that $130 billion in projects were delayed or shut down in Q1:

At least 75 projects worth about $130 billion have been blocked or delayed from January through March across the country as a result of data center opponents, according to a Data Center Watch study obtained by NBC News.

The authors of the study further noted that this hindering of AI data centers is the most on record in a three-month period since they began tracking the matter in 2023.

“The quarter reflected a structural shift rather than a cyclical spike: communities have internalized an opposition playbook, legislative sessions introduced formal regulatory uncertainty, and the number of active opposition groups more than doubled to 833 across 49 states,” the study read.

Public sentiment tracks the same trend. A new Gallup poll found 70 percent of Americans oppose building AI data centers in their local area, with 48 percent strongly opposed. Roughly a quarter favor such projects, and just 7 percent are strongly in favor.

Industry executives argue the backlash won’t slow demand for computing power. CoreWeave CEO Michael Intrator, whose company uses Nvidia chips to power AI infrastructure, told Yahoo Finance at the Goldman Sachs Communacopia & Tech Conference that “the debate around data centers has been expansive.” He added: “But let’s be very clear, the demand for compute will not be altered by a jurisdiction saying you’re not allowed to build data centers here. All that will do is cause the data center to move to a different location. It will cause perhaps an increase in cost, but ultimately the data center will be built and delivered because the market signals are for that to happen.”