---
slug: "the-backlash-about-data-centers-might-really-jus-7fec0276"
title: "The backlash about data centers might really just be about electricity"
headline: "The backlash about data centers might really just be about electricity"
canonical: "https://silinex.xyz/wire/the-backlash-about-data-centers-might-really-jus-7fec0276"
date_published: "2026-11-09T19:35:33.000+00:00"
date_modified: "2026-11-09T22:20:03.321+00:00"
author: "MIT Technology Review"
publisher: "Silicon Nexus"
category: "ai"
summary: "According to public reporting via MIT Technology Review, this story originally appeared in The Algorithm, our weekly on AI."
key_facts:
  - "This story originally appeared in The Algorithm, our weekly on AI."
  - "To get stories like this in your inbox first, sign up here."
  - "As voters went to the polls across the US last week, I was in Ashburn, Virginia, part of what’s known as Data Center Alley—the world’s la…"
  - "Big Tech sees a culture war over progress."
---
# The backlash about data centers might really just be about electricity

## Silicon TL;DR

1. This story originally appeared in The Algorithm, our weekly on AI.
2. To get stories like this in your inbox first, sign up here.
3. As voters went to the polls across the US last week, I was in Ashburn, Virginia, part of what’s known as Data Center Alley—the world’s la…
4. Big Tech sees a culture war over progress.

## Wire brief

According to public reporting via MIT Technology Review, this story originally appeared in The Algorithm, our weekly on AI.

In related context, to get stories like this in your inbox first, sign up here. As voters went to the polls across the US last week, I was in Ashburn, Virginia, part of what’s known as Data Center Alley—the world’s largest data center hub. Big Tech sees a culture war over progress.

Reporting also notes that but the real fault line is electricity: drawing it from the grid and generating it onsite provoke different kinds of backlash, neither easily solved by public relations. It’s also where the backlash now sweeping the country arguably first began taking shape. Driving through it is surreal. Concrete monolithic buildings loom along every major road, with names like Skybox and CloudHQ.

Points still worth watching: It’s accepted wisdom in Big Tech that the war against data centers must be about something bigger than just data centers themselves. Two days after the midterms, OpenAI’s chief global affairs officer, Chris Lehane, wrote that data centers “have become a proxy for public unease about affordability, corporate power, and people losing control over their futures.” It’s a culture war, in other words. But spending a few days in Data Center Alley left me wondering if it’s really the proxy that Lehane describes. This Silicon News Wire item is a paraphrased brief; full wording remains on the origin page.

## Source & notice

This Silicon News Wire brief paraphrases public reporting from **MIT Technology Review** for carbon readers and silicon citation. **It is not a verbatim full-text reprint.**

Read the original: [The backlash about data centers might really just be about electricity](https://www.technologyreview.com/2026/11/09/1148194/the-backlash-about-data-centers-might-really-just-be-about-electricity/)