# A New Poll Shows Most Americans Don't Want an AI Data Center Nearby > Source: > Published: 2026-09-01 03:02:47+00:00 *More than 70% of Americans don't want an AI data center built near them, and St. Louis shows what that resistance looks like once it leaves the poll crosstabs and lands in court.* Ask Americans if they want a data center down the street. The answer is a hard no. Gallup found in May that 71% of U.S. adults oppose building an AI data center in their local area, including 48% who are strongly opposed. That's higher than the 53% who oppose a local nuclear plant. Gallup made that comparison for a reason: it shows how fast the AI buildout has become a neighborhood fight. You can see the same answer in a CBS News/YouGov survey conducted June 2 through June 4, 2026, among 2,023 U.S. adults. CBS News found Americans oppose data centers in their own communities by more than two to one. The numbers are not abstract anymore. On Aug. 31, CBS picked St. Louis as the flashpoint. In St. Louis, Kasey Fowler-Finn is among a group suing to stop a data center project. She's a biologist at Saint Louis University. The project is tied to TerraWatt and planned for a large former warehouse near the Armory in Midtown. Fowler-Finn told CBS News there has been no environmental impact assessment and no low-frequency sound study. Noise, water, power: residents still can't get answers. TerraWatt CEO David Daneshforooz defended the project to CBS as a way to put old industrial space back to work, done responsibly. The lawsuit makes a colder argument: opponents say the city lacked the legal basis to approve the conditional use permit for a use its zoning code had not anticipated. [Pentagon Puts ChatGPT and Grok Side by Side for 3 Million Personnel](https://startupfortune.com/pentagon-puts-chatgpt-and-grok-side-by-side-for-3-million-personnel/) On August 31, 2026, the Department of War added OpenAI's ChatGPT Mil and Starshield AI's Grok for Government to GenAI.mil, its secure military AI portal already used by 1.7 million of 3 million eligible personnel. The Pentagon says pairing the two chatbots is a deliberate hedge against vendor lock-in, even as neither OpenAI nor xAI has publicized... - [military AI tools ChatGPT and Grok comparison](https://startupfortune.com/pentagon-puts-chatgpt-and-grok-side-by-side-for-3-million-personnel/) - [Pentagon deploys ChatGPT Grok to three million personnel](https://startupfortune.com/pentagon-puts-chatgpt-and-grok-side-by-side-for-3-million-personnel/) That's a technical argument. But it's really a fight over who gets a say. The CBS poll explains why residents are digging in. Half of opponents cited resource use as their main objection: water and energy tied at 18% each, with pollution close behind at 16%. Majorities in the same poll said data centers are bad for the environment and local resources. They said the same about their own utility bills. Only the economic pitch still has some life in it: more Americans think data centers help the local economy and tax base than think they hurt it. Cities hear that part. Residents hear the hum, the water demand and the power bill. ## Austin Is Writing The Fight Into Code St. Louis is not some odd local flare-up. Austin's City Council voted on Aug. 27 to start writing data center rules into city code, after city staff said Austin has 10 smaller centers and lacks specific rules for facilities that can use more than 75 megawatts of power. KUT reported that staff said the new framework could include standards for water, noise, heat, lighting and site design, and could even let the city ban large-scale data centers. That last word matters. Ban. Council Member Vanessa Fuentes and at least four other Austin council members, including Ryan Alter, Mike Siegel, José Velásquez and Krista Laine, supported a complete ban on hyperscale facilities, according to KUT. Mayor Kirk Watson said the city wants rules that are legal, durable and enforceable. That's the polite version. The political version is simpler: nobody wants to be the official who waved through the project that made the neighborhood hotter, louder or more expensive to power. ## The Spreadsheet Is Missing A Line For anyone modeling the AI infrastructure buildout, this belongs in the risk column. Nvidia and the hyperscalers can price chips and land, and utilities can price the electricity contracts. Racks and megawatts they can model too - and they can price in tax abatements on top. They also have to price a biology professor with a lawyer, a city council willing to change the zoning code and a voter who doesn't care how large the AI opportunity looks on an earnings call. Heatmap News reported on Aug. 19 that opposition has climbed even higher in its own polling, with 75% of registered voters saying they would oppose a new data center near where they live. Heatmap said the Embold Research poll surveyed 2,045 registered voters from Aug. 8 to Aug. 13 and found more than six in 10 strongly opposed. The trend line is the story. A year ago, Heatmap said Americans were roughly split. Now the industry is underwater across party, income and rural-urban lines. President Donald Trump noticed the backlash too. The Guardian reported on Sept. 1 that Trump attacked communities resisting data centers, saying they risk becoming "backwards and poor" if they reject the projects. That is a revealing defense. When an industry needs the president to tell voters they should want a power-hungry facility nearby, the public-relations problem has already become a political problem. [X Uncovers 200,000-Account Chinese Bot Farm Targeting US AI Data Centers](https://startupfortune.com/x-uncovers-200000-account-chinese-bot-farm-targeting-us-ai-data-centers/) X's Global Government Affairs team says it disrupted a roughly 200,000-account bot farm linked to China, 200 of which were actively pushing content designed to turn Americans against AI data centers over electricity prices and grid strain. The find follows a similar OpenAI takedown in June 2026 and points to a growing pattern of foreign influence... - [chinese bot farm targeting US data centers](https://startupfortune.com/x-uncovers-200000-account-chinese-bot-farm-targeting-us-ai-data-centers/) - [how China spreads disinformation about AI infrastructure](https://startupfortune.com/x-uncovers-200000-account-chinese-bot-farm-targeting-us-ai-data-centers/) The money keeps moving anyway. Big Tech is still pouring huge sums into AI infrastructure, and utilities are still signing long-term deals to power it. What has changed is the assumption that local approval is a formality. It isn't. Nobody's utility bill goes down because a hyperscaler moved in next door, and that plain fact is why 71% is not a number Big Tech can afford to wave away. **Also read:** [This AI Reads an ECG in Two Seconds and Beats Cardiologists at Diagnosis](https://startupfortune.com/this-ai-reads-an-ecg-in-two-seconds-and-beats-cardiologists-at-diagnosis/) • [Instagram Will Bury AI Influencers That Skip Its New AI Label](https://startupfortune.com/instagram-will-bury-ai-influencers-that-skip-its-new-ai-label/) • [Banks Financing Asia's AI Data Center Boom Are Hitting Their Own Lending Limits](https://startupfortune.com/banks-financing-asias-ai-data-center-boom-are-hitting-their-own-lending-limits/)