Meta warns that election backlash against data centers could make AI expansion harder

Meta president Dina Powell McCormick said at the WSJ Tech conference on Wednesday that Democratic gains in the midterm elections will make data centers considerably harder to build, TechCrunch reports. She acknowledged the industry has fallen short in explaining what these investments offer, and argued that opposition to the facilities reflects wider unease about AI, since a data center is the most visible local sign of the technology.

Powell McCormick said Meta has been building data centers for 20 years and now has them in 23 states, with five planned at 1 gigawatt or more, including one in Texas. According to TechCrunch, the company fears losing some investments after candidates campaigned against such projects. She expects more scrutiny ahead, with proposals weighed against what constituents actually want.

She described the approach Meta uses to win local approval: paying for its own electricity, steering tax surpluses to teachers and first responders, hiring locally and securing bipartisan backing. She also framed Meta's AI ambitions in terms of broad access, saying Mark Zuckerberg is "long human" and that the technology should be democratized.

The stakes are high because Meta is counting on its consumer AI agent Muse growing from 10 million users to billions. Even if that falls short, Powell McCormick said the spending would not be wasted, claiming Meta receives daily calls from parties looking to lease its compute and sees a route to making money either way.