Broadband Live Join Broadband Breakfast at the AI Infrastructure Summit in Santa Clara, Calif.
Data centers have become a political story as much as an infrastructure one. Local zoning fights, electricity rates, water use and state tax incentives now shape where and whether new capacity gets built, and the companies putting steel in the ground are having to make their case to skeptical neighbors, utility commissions and state legislatures. This session, which will take place live from the AI Infra Summit in Santa Clara, Calif., will bring together the developers, utility partners and policy advisers behind data center buildouts. We’ll talk about what the opposition gets right (if anything), what it gets wrong, and how the industry is adjusting its approach to AI data centers.
Panelist Resources
Broadband Breakfast's May 13, 2026, event, "The Politics of Data Centers":
Chip Pickering: Data Centers are America's Most Misunderstood Infrastructure Asset, Broadband Breakfast, May 21, 2026
Lindsay Miller and Doug McCollough: Providers Can Better Manage the Risks of America’s Data Center Debate, May 28, 2026, Broadband Breakfast
Broadband Breakfast's August 2025 series on data centers in Ashburn, Virginia
Earth, Ether, Fire and Water: An Elemental Data Center Story, Broadband Breakfast CEO Drew Clark, March 2025
Panelists
Panelists have been invitedDrew Clark(moderator), CEO and Publisher, Broadband Breakfast
Breakfast Media LLC CEO Drew Clark has led the Broadband Breakfast community since 2008. An early proponent of better broadband, better lives, he initially founded the Broadband Census crowdsourcing tool to collect and verify broadband data left unpublished by the Federal Communications Commission. As CEO and Publisher, Clark presides over the leading media community advocating for higher-capacity internet everywhere through topical, timely and intelligent coverage. Clark also served as head of the Partnership for a Connected Illinois, a state broadband initiative.