Data Centers: Some U.S. Developers Seek to Build Bridges and Bring Down Walls

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Written by John Egan for IIR News Intelligence (Sugar Land, Texas)

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Summary

Some technology firms are using a more collaborative approach to stakeholder engagement as part of their effort to build data centers. That, plus new market research, could lead to more construction and less litigation.

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Construction Plans, Opposition Still Shooting Up

Plans to build new data centers, and community opposition to those plans, continue to rise across the U.S.

Industrial Info Resources is tracking plans by Big Tech firms and data center developers to begin construction on about 3,452 data centers across the U.S. between January 2026 and December 2030. The total investment value (TIV) of those scheduled projects is about $3.7 trillion. The Global Market Intelligence (GMI) Industrial Manufacturing Project Database offers a list of detailed project reports.

Those numbers have been steadily rising over the last few years.

But the number of projects that have been cancelled or delayed also continue to rise: For that same five-year period, about 430 proposed projects have been scrapped or postponed, valued at approximately $264 billion.

When encountering public resistance to planned data centers, which is taking place in Red states as well as Blue ones, some developers initially responded in a variety of traditional but less-than-productive ways, including denying the resistance was authentic and impugning the motives of opponents. The proponent of one large data center planned for Utah even suggested that those who opposed him were working for the Chinese government.

None of those tactics appear to have cowed opponents. As the U.S. draws closer to the midterm elections, it is increasingly clear that data centers are on this November's ballot, no less than incumbents and challengers, Democrats and Republicans. For more on that, see August 19, 2026, article - Texas Governor Pauses New Data Centers, Mirroring Growing U.S. Skepticism.

Only time will tell if one time-honored tactic, pouring money into election advertising, will be successful. Data center proponents and opponents have created a raft of political action committees (PACs) and super PACS to direct money to their favored candidates, with proponents so far showing far deeper pockets. For more on that, see July 7, 2026, article - Money, Votes and Data Centers: Will Political Spending Overcome Rising Public Opposition to Data Centers?

By the Numbers

• 3,452: Number of data center projects developers plan to build in the U.S. between January 2026 and December 2030
• US$3.7 trillion: The dollar value of proposed U.S. data center projects. Both of these numbers continue to rise sharply
• 430: Number of data center projects over that five-year timeline that have been scrapped or delayed
• US$264 billion: Value of cancelled or postponed U.S. data center projects. Both of these numbers also continue to shoot up

Time for a More Collaborative Approach?

But while the traditional bare-knuckled, money-driven, winner-take-all approach is failing to stem the tide of public opposition to data centers, a more accommodative strategy, plus new market research, suggests developers and communities can find ways to happily coexist.

Meta Platforms is getting praise for the way it is listening to communities and proposing ways to address some of their concerns around data centers. Two months ago, it announced it would fund bonuses of up to US$50,000 for teachers in a Richland Parish, a low-income community in Louisiana. As part of its community outreach, Meta also showcased that it had awarded more than $1.6 billion in work to local contractors since first breaking ground on a data center there in 2024. And its planned expansion of that facility would pump an additional $1 billion or more into local roads, water and wastewater systems.

In a low-income community of 20,000 people with an unemployment rate higher than the U.S. average, those actions were well received.

Across the country, in Utah, Meta proactively engaged community leaders in Eagle Mountain before it broke ground on a data center there in 2018. Mayor Jared Gray told the MS NOW cable television network this summer that the city was able to come to agreement with the tech giant on everything from taxes to power use.

The company also provided conservation grants to 20 organizations throughout the community while also investing millions in local schools, underwriting a hydroponic garden for the high school and providing laptops for every high school student. For more on this, see July 20, 2026, article - Data Centers Face 'Arc of Outrage,' But Consultant Has a Plan.

To be sure, Meta has not always acted as a benevolent corporate citizen, but its ability to secure a social license to operate its data centers in those two far-flung communities validates the adage, "you catch more flies with honey than with vinegar."

On September 3, the Yale Program on Climate Change Communications held a webinar on public opinion and data centers. Kristin Eberhard, vice president of external affairs at Rewiring America, said a majority of those surveyed said they would support data center construction in their communities if there were direct and specific benefits to homeowners beyond construction jobs and tax revenue.

Specifically, she said respondents were seeking investments in their homes that would offset some of the expected increase in electric bills stemming from data centers. Eberhard identified four specific types of home energy investments that data center developers could consider funding as part of their stakeholder engagement: installation of heat pumps, rooftop solar panels and battery energy storage systems (BESS) as well as weatherization of homes.

"Peoples' opposition to data centers is not always a knee-jerk resistance," she said. "Rather, often it is opposition to a bad bargain. If you treat homeowners as part of the solution by providing them with home-grown investments that address their energy concerns, you can also create or free up some incremental electric generating capacity to power the data centers."

Eberhard's co-panelist, Neha Gour, a Ph. D. candidate in science communications, added that "understanding where people agree and disagree can shape stakeholder engagement."

Meta's activities in Richland Parish, Louisiana, and Eagle Mountain, Utah, and the recommendations of Eberhard and Gour, echo the recommendations in the classic work on stakeholder engagement, Getting to Yes. In that slim volume, the authors Roger Fisher and William Ury recommend parties to a negotiation seek solutions that meet each side's strategic objectives, rather than pursue a scorched earth strategy where one side wins and the other loses. Why? Because the party that loses in that type of negotiation will, inevitably, find other ways to claw back some benefits from the other side at a future date.

Key Takeaways

• Plans to construct new data centers in the U.S. continue to rise, as do the number of proposed projects that have been cancelled or placed on hold.
• Data centers have become a hot-button topic in many races during the mid-term election cycle.
• Some developers are trying to overcome community resistance to their projects with traditional means, such as funding political ads.
• But other companies have sought to engage with affected communities and fund initiatives that are meaningful to those communities.
• Developers may want to more proactively engage with community members by funding residential energy initiatives that offset the expected impact that data centers could have on their electric bills.

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About Industrial Info Resources
Industrial Info Resources (IIR) is the leading provider of industrial market intelligence. Since 1983, IIR has provided comprehensive research, news and analysis on the industrial process, manufacturing and energy related industries. IIR's Global Market Intelligence (GMI) helps companies identify and pursue trends across multiple markets with access to real, qualified and validated plant and project opportunities. Across the world, Industrial Info Resources is tracking over 250,000 current and future projects worth $30.2 trillion (USD).