data centers "not on my watch"

Indiana. Wisconsin. Two different towns. Two different tech giants. Google, Microsoft. They pitched the same vision. And they got the same answer. “No thanks. Not here…”

On paper, data centers look like the perfect neighbor.

They bring hundreds of millions in investment. They power the AI. But then the locals showed up to the microphone...

They didn’t care about the investment. They cared about their reality. “My power bill is already too high”, they said. “Don’t make it worse”. “You are going to drain our water”. “Those cooling fans are too loud”.

Just like that, billion-dollar projects were pulled.

This matters because AI is currently doing the heavy lifting for the economy. It’s 40% of GDP growth.

But you can’t pay your mortgage with GDP. People don’t feel economic growth. They feel the price on their utility statement. They feel the water restrictions.

AI tells a story about abundance. The ground truth in these towns is different. That’s a problem.

If tech wants to build in these towns, it needs to show up with something people actually value. Lower bills. Real investment. Quiet equipment. Hard proof of how life gets better for the person living next door.

Anyone else seeing these reports in other towns?

Dan from Money Machine Newsletter