AI industry moves to thwart data centre backlash ahead of US midterms

A group backed by Google, Meta, Microsoft and other tech titans is set to unveil a series of pledges to mitigate the backlash against AI data centres in the US, as the issue looms over November’s midterm elections.

The AI Infrastructure Coalition, which advocates for pro-AI policies, will on Wednesday announce commitments under which members would cover the energy costs of their data centre operations, fund communal organisations such as schools and hospitals, minimise water usage and prioritise local hires.

“Our intent is to set the gold standard,” Kyrsten Sinema, a former Democratic senator from Arizona who now co-chairs the AIIC, told the FT.

Sinema said the pledges were a “commitment . . . to ensure that as we build American AI dominance, we do so in a way that matches with American values”.

The AIIC’s “community principles” come as polling shows Americans have increasingly soured on data centres over the past 12 months, with large majorities of both Democratic and Republican voters saying they would object to one being built in their neighbourhood.

More than 1,000 communities across the US have attempted to introduce moratoriums or other restrictions on AI infrastructure this year, according to FT research. In the first half of 2026, these policies and other protests have affected more than 100 data centre projects worth a combined $200bn, according to Data Center Watch, a research project run by AI security firm 10a Labs.

Candidates from both major parties have increasingly taken anti-data-centre positions, as the issue rises up the agenda in critical Senate races. Michigan’s Donald Trump-backed candidate Mike Rogers has called for a one-year pause on data centre construction, while the president’s pick in Texas, Ken Paxton, has vowed to strip subsidies from such projects.

Meanwhile, Trump has defied members of his Maga coalition who have called for curbs on data centre construction, claiming those who object to such projects want to end up “backwards and poor”.

He has also dismissed AI safety concerns as a “hoax” spread by Chinese actors trying to undermine the US tech industry.

AIIC’s Sinema blamed some of the backlash on “a very, very sophisticated, targeted misinformation machine, largely driven by foreign efforts”, but she added that many Americans had “concerns or fears that are very organic”.

“What’s really important is to recognise that individual concerns expressed by Americans are valid and need to be answered and done so in a proactive, community-based way,” she said, pointing to AIIC-commissioned polling that showed voters were much more likely to support data centre construction when presented with the new “principles”.

Some of AIIC’s members — which include venture capital giant Andreessen Horowitz, Digital Realty, Entergy, Google, Lumen, Meta, Microsoft, QTS and PG&E — have already made pledges to increase transparency in data centre projects and involve communities in their construction.

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After a lunch with tech leaders from Anthropic, OpenAI, Nvidia, Palantir and others on Tuesday, Trump said the executives had committed “to work with local communities”, adding that “could mean supplying oil and gas, supplying education, helping people financially”.

He said that those who live near data centres “have become very rich”.

The US Senate is also likely to vote on a proposal for AI companies to shoulder the burden of increased energy costs this week.