Earlier this week, President Donald Trump wandered into the data center debate, making life considerably tougher for Republican colleagues facing tight races in the November midterms.
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life → wander → midterms
“The only reason that communities throughout the U.S.A. should not want Data Centers is if they want to end up being backwards and poor,” the president wrote on Truth Social on Monday.
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president → want → Monday
“If they want to be successful and rich, with far lower taxes and jobs all over the place, let Data Reign.”
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Data → want → place
The president had reportedly seen polling showing that Americans largely oppose data centers, but that hasn’t stopped him from calling such facilities a “Golden Goose” and accusing critics of being in the pocket of China.
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that → see → China
Trump’s Cabinet has followed suit, even though a recent Economist/YouGov poll found that just 14 percent of Democrats and 31 percent of Republicans think new data centers are good for America.
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centers → follow → America
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick recently made the dubious claim that data centers “don’t use water,” contradicting both widely available evidence and his own comments last year that the facilities “suck” water.
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facilities → make → water
In recent months, Big Tech has ramped up spending on U.S. data centers, which are crucial for the artificial intelligence boom, just as backlash against data centers has exploded nationwide, amid concerns they could drive high electricity prices and drain water supplies to cool the massive facilities.
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they → ramp → facilities
The five biggest “hyperscale” tech companies — Amazon, Microsoft, Google, Meta and Oracle — are projected to spend more than $560 billion on AI infrastructure this year, while the pace of data center construction in July was up about 60 percent year-over-year, according to the Census Bureau.
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pace → project → Bureau
By 2027, data center demand for power in the U.S. is expected to double.
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demand → expect → U.S.
An estimated two-thirds of the data centers built since 2022 are located in areas of high water stress, many of them in the western U.S.
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thirds → estimate → U.S.
Amid this whirlwind of spending and criticism, red and blue states alike are considering bans.
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states → consider → bans
In July, New York issued the country’s first statewide moratorium on large data center construction, which will last for one year.
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which → issue → year
Facing an uphill battle to win over the public in the midterms and beyond, the AI sector has leapt into action, pouring millions of dollars into an already record-setting midterm cycle of corporate spending.
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sector → face → spending
The super PAC Leading the Future has raised $140 million for the midterms, according to Reuters, with plans to donate to pro-AI candidates of both parties.
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PAC → raise → parties
That includes $50 million from the influential pro-AI venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz and another combined $25 million from Greg Brockman, the president of ChatGPT-maker OpenAI, and his wife Anna, according to the Federal Election Commission.
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That → include → Commission
(The founders of Andreessen Horowitz supported Donald Trump during the 2024 election, though one of the venture firm’s founders also later donated to Kamala Harris, while the Brockmans have been among the top Trump donors since.)
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Brockmans → support → donors
Anthropic, the creator of Claude, has reportedly donated at least $40 million through a dark money nonprofit called Public First Action, which boasts a $100 million war chest.
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which → donate → chest
Elon Musk’s super PAC has a similar cash pile, while Facebook owner Meta is linked to a variety of PACs with tens of millions of dollars ready to deploy.
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millions → have → dollars
A record-setting midterm season for the AI industry
All told, AI companies have pledged about $265 million to super PACs and political groups in the 2026 elections, a Wall Street Journal analysis found.
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analysis → set → elections
Alongside cryptocurrency and betting companies, AI is the leading industry spending money on this year’s cycle.
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AI → lead → cycle
By this past June, the 2026 midterms had already seen a record 40 percent more corporate spending than the 2024 election.
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midterms → see → election
Since the release of ChatGPT in 2022, AI technology has matured and the companies behind it have come to dominate the U.S. economy.
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companies → mature → economy
It was only a matter of time before they started spending like it on political campaigns, according to Brendan Glavin, director of insights at the transparency group OpenSecrets.
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they → start → group
“These newer companies like Anthropic and OpenAI are so new that this is the first time that they’ve really made a substantial jump in,” he told The Independent.
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he → make → Independent
The Independent has contacted Anthropic, Public First Action and Leading the Future for comment.
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Independent → contact → comment
In response to questions about the midterms, OpenAI pointed to a statement from June, which noted that that company has not donated to any candidates or campaigns and has not founded or funded any PACs.
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company → point → PACs
In the statement, the company confirmed that the Brockmans supported Leading the Future, but noted that OpenAI itself wasn’t involved with the group and “any engagement with that organization has been in a personal capacity, not on behalf of the company.”
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engagement → confirm → company
AI-aligned groups have often prioritized intervening directly in midterm races, even obscure ones, rather than adopting the tactics of other industries, which sometimes prefer to donate to the national wing of a political party or general midterm victory fund to signal their support and build ties.
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which → align → ties
“Crypto did this in 2024,” Glavin said of the tactics.
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Glavin → do → tactics
“It was seen as successful.
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It → see → ?
Now you’re seeing it repeated and AI has taken on the same playbook.”
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AI → see → playbook
Often, AI companies have spent on TV political ads that don’t even mention AI or data centers, even though these issues are of paramount importance to the industry, instead choosing to more generally invest in or attack candidates seen as favorable to their interests.
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issues → spend → interests
Candidates turn on data centers
AI-industry money poured into the Democratic primary for New York’s 12th congressional district.
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money → turn → district
The target was Alex Bores, a state assemblyman and former Palantir employee who wrote a state AI safety law signed last year.
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who → write → law
A PAC tied to Public First, the group linked with Anthropic, put more than $13 million towards supporting Bores, while a super PAC tied to Leading the Future spent more than $8 million opposing him.
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PAC → tie → him
With an estimated $27 million in AI-related political funds spent on the race altogether, Bores was narrowly defeated by fellow assemblyman Micah Lasher.
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Bores → estimate → Lasher
Ironically, for all the industry interest around the election, Lasher was a co-sponsor on Bores’ bill and supports a temporary national moratorium on data center construction.
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Lasher → support → construction
He said in his victory speech he wouldn’t be “taking my cues” from the companies intervening in the race.
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he → say → race
More than $31 million has been spent on data center-related political ads this year, virtually all of them negative, according to a CNN analysis of AdImpact data.
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all → spend → data
That’s a sea change from 2024, when there wasn’t a single ad on broadcast TV about the subject.
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That → ’ → subject
…and 38 more, not listed.
