Americans hate data centers. Tech needs them
Though the midterms have been dubbed “the AI election” and a resounding repudiation of tech, it’s hard to tell what all this practically means.
The midterms have been dubbed "the AI election" and a repudiation of technology, but it is unclear what this means in practice. It is clear that there is significant anti-tech sentiment, particularly around data centers. A recent poll found that over 70% of Americans oppose data center construction. Democrats capitalized on this sentiment in over 130 federal and gubernatorial races by running anti-tech or anti-data center ads.
This raises the question of whether the wishes of American voters clash with the needs of companies like Anthropic, which is preparing for its historic IPO and requires significant compute resources. The results of the election seem to be at odds with the needs of the AI boom. While some stocks in the data center sector dropped, the overall Dow rallied on Democrats' victories, up 1500 points.
Billionaire tax proposals in California, which were opposed by high-profile figures like Sergey Brin, may not be dead. The billionaires who contributed to the election results, including Marc Andreessen, Ben Horowitz, and Elon Musk, were notably quiet on social media. This suggests that despite the vocal support from billionaires, the American public remains deeply skeptical of the AI boom.
It remains uncertain what these results will mean for the future of technology and the people covered by journalists like Allie Garfinkle.
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