A billionaire-backed advocacy group and an infrastructure coalition backed by major data center developers are among new forces being marshaled to combat rising resistance to data centers as the projects increasingly emerge among pivotal election issues.
Build American AI, backed in part by billionaire technology investors, said this week it was planning to support a bipartisan slate of political candidates who support data center development. The nonprofit group said it is forming a political action committee called Building the Future, supported by private equity firm Andreesen Horowitz, OpenAI co-founder Greg Brockman and Palantir co-founder Joe Lonsdale, among others.
The group said in a social media post that its political fundraising group will support Republicans and Democrats “who believe America can lead the world" in artificial intelligence "while protecting families and empowering local communities.”
On Wednesday, another nonprofit group called Infrastructure for America said it was launching a campaign seeking to change public perceptions about the facilities that are designed to support burgeoning use of artificial intelligence technologies.
Infrastructure for America was formed by developers Compass Datacenters, Digital Realty, Vantage Data Centers and Blackstone’s QTS Data Centers. The group seeks to “shape the public conversation” as communities raise concerns about electricity consumption, land use, noise and other environmental matters.
“The real test of a developer isn’t what it promises at the ribbon cutting — it's whether it pays its share and keeps its word long after the construction crews leave,” Compass founder and CEO Chris Crosby said in a statement from the group.
More than 1,500 data center projects are in planning stages nationwide, according to the Pew Research Center, and development has garnered cross-party opposition nationwide. A recent Gallup poll found 71% of Americans oppose building data centers in their communities, with 48% of respondents saying they would never want to live near one.
Several tech firms and developers have pledged to pay costs for electricity and other utility upgrades to support their projects, and some have committed financial backing for job training, public school funding and other community benefits.
President Trump has called data centers a “golden goose” and this week chided communities for opposing them, saying in a social media post that they are choosing to be “backwards and poor.” Trump warned that U.S. technology rivals like China “could not be happier” watching American communities turn away from AI facility investments.
But many industry analysts and government leaders say developers have failed to make a convincing case to alleviate public concerns. U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said during this week’s G20 gathering of government finance ministers that AI facility builders have done a “horrendous job of explaining themselves to the American people.”
“They’re going to have to take some of the blame, and they are going to have to convince the American people that all the benefits will not accrue to a small group,” Bessent said during a press conference in Asheville, North Carolina.