The rapid backlash to data centers and artificial intelligence has taken many in the tech and finance worlds by surprise.

Understandable. Only a few short years ago, states and municipalities were competing with each other to lure data center developers, dangling tax incentives for projects they thought would create jobs and generate tax revenue. The sudden reversal in public opinion has whipsawed politicians as it has business people.

The politicians, though, have reacted to the new political reality far more quickly than have the business people.

Gov. JB Pritzker in June suspended state tax breaks for data centers that had been in effect since 2020. Pritzker's idea was to slow data center growth and give........

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