Sanders and Democratic governors call for datacenter construction pauses

Senator Bernie Sanders and newly elected Democrats called for pauses in datacenter construction after the US midterm elections. Sanders demanded an immediate national moratorium on datacenters in a post on X this week. “Americans don’t want Big Tech oligarchs wrecking the environment, gutting jobs and threatening humanity’s future,” Sanders wrote.

The Democratic election victory partly fueled by backlash against the tech industry added momentum to efforts to slow the multi-trillion-dollar datacenter buildout. Opposition to datacenters ranked among the most visible issues in the US midterm campaigns. Datacenter and AI opposition appeared in many Democratic victory speeches after the midterms with newly elected representatives promising to limit the power of Big Tech. Voters approved dozens of local ballot measures meant to limit datacenter projects across their states.

Victorious Democratic candidates promised to give local communities authority over choices involving AI and data centers. Newly elected governors in states central to the datacenter buildout including Texas and Georgia called for moratoriums on datacenters. Incoming Texas Governor Gina Hinojosa promised to stop new datacenter construction until the state establishes protections. She said on CNN that Texas has no rules and laws to protect Texans and that people are taking advantage of Texans.

Hinojosa also said on CNN that the state must stop datacenter activity until protections are in place. Representative Yassamin Ansari of Arizona joined Sanders in calling for restrictions citing a proposed SpaceX datacenter project spanning more than 700 acres in her state. Ansari said on X on Wednesday that pausing advanced AI development, regulating the industry and banning artificial superintelligence should top the Democratic day-one agenda.

Musk ridiculed Ansari’s post with a retweet and Ansari responded by predicting congressional hearings and telling Musk she would see him soon. The technology billionaire spent nearly half a billion dollars to support Republican candidates and criticize Democrats on his social media platform. Musk joked on election night that datacenters in space looked appealing.

Chris Pappas the Senator-elect from New Hampshire offered praise to constituents because they stood against large data centers that damage communities. Ohio Senator-elect Sherrod Brown said to applause that he works for Ohio not for data centers. He declared “I do not work for data centers.” New Mexico congressman Gabe Vasquez declared that the moment has come to halt the AI billionaire class from imposing datacenters on communities.

The election result alarmed technology investors and executives. Post-election anxiety helped fuel a major selloff in AI stocks this week as investors worried about regulation such as datacenter pauses. Meta platforms president Dina Powell McCormick told the Wall Street Journal that building datacenters will be harder after the vote.

White House National Economic Council director Kevin Hassett expressed confidence that datacenter construction would continue. Hassett told CNBC that ballot initiatives would not affect existing projects.