Americans have made up their minds about AI’s physical footprint, and the verdict is brutal. Over 70 percent of US adults oppose new AI data center construction in their area, according to a fresh Gallup survey reported by The Verge AI. Only 7 percent said they were “strongly” in favor.
The numbers are striking when you stack them against historical baselines. As The Verge AI details, Americans would rather live near a nuclear power plant than a data center. Even at its peak, opposition to nuclear plant construction topped out at 63 percent. AI infrastructure just blew past that ceiling.
What’s Driving the Backlash
Gallup ran two waves: a March 2026 survey of 1,000 randomly selected adults across all 50 states plus DC, and an April 2026 follow-up with 2,054 members of the Gallup Panel. The complaints clustered around concrete, kitchen-table issues.
- Resources: 50 percent of opponents named water and electricity strain as their top concern
- Power bills: A separate Pew Research survey this month found 43 percent of Americans see data centers as a “major reason” their electric bills are climbing
- Quality of life, pollution, and general distrust of AI rounded out the rest of the objections
This isn’t a partisan fight, which is what makes it interesting. Democrats lead opposition at 75 percent, independents sit at 74 percent, and even Republicans clock in at 63 percent against. Finding three-quarters of Democrats and almost two-thirds of Republicans agreeing on anything in 2026 is rare. AI data centers managed it.
The Job Argument Isn’t Landing
Among the minority who support new construction, 55 percent cited job opportunities as their main reason. That’s the same logic Maine Governor Janet Mills used earlier this year when she vetoed an 18-month moratorium on data center construction in her state.
Here’s the problem with that pitch: hyperscale data centers are notoriously light on permanent jobs once construction wraps. A facility that draws gigawatts of power and millions of gallons of water often runs with a few dozen technicians. Voters are doing the math.
Why This Matters
The AI build-out depends on dropping massive compute facilities into communities at unprecedented speed. Microsoft, Google, Meta, Amazon, and OpenAI’s Stargate partners have committed hundreds of billions to new sites. The siting fight was always going to be local. Now there’s hard polling showing it’s also brutally lopsided.
Expect three things to follow:
- More moratoriums: State and county-level construction freezes will spread. Maine’s governor vetoed one. The next one might survive.
- Utility rate fights: With 43 percent of Americans already blaming data centers for higher bills, regulators will face pressure to make hyperscalers pay their own way rather than socializing costs onto residential ratepayers.
- A push offshore and to remote land: Sites in West Texas, the Dakotas, and abroad start looking more attractive than fighting NIMBY battles in populated states.
The AI industry has spent two years selling the public on what AI can do. It hasn’t done much work selling them on where it has to live. That bill is coming due. Full breakdown at The Verge AI.