Data center delays are piling up as community opposition mounts — with nearly 160 projects across the U.S. having been paused or canceled since 2024.
The delays are a sign that the rising public backlash to data centers could slow development of artificial intelligence. The facilities are at the center of the political fight to control Congress, with voters expressing concerns over their voracious consumption of electricity and water.
Social license to operate has become the key issue for data center development over the last eight to 10 months, said Dan Thompson, an analyst with 451 Research at S&P Global Energy, which tallied the slowdown. He estimates that roughly two-thirds of the projects being tracked by S&P Global face some sort of delay, stemming from community pushback to pending legislation.
“This is considered a key risk for projects that are in flight,” Thompson said on a webinar last week. “It’s across the country that we’re seeing this. We’re seeing pushback and challenges to data center development.”
Hot button: Data centers have exploded as a political issue in 2026, shaping the debate around affordability, AI and political accountability as the U.S. hurtles toward the midterm elections next month.
The opposition is bipartisan. Conservative states like Texas, liberal ones like New York and swing states like Pennsylvania have all enacted measures to blunt the data center boom in recent months. Those regulations could soon go national — the Senate’s permitting reform bill includes provisions to make data centers pay for grid upgrades.