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Late February a New Jersey City council voted against the construction of an AI data Centre, after protests and concerns from hundreds of residents. The people argued that their electricity and water bills will skyrocket, and the facility would also harm their environment. Now instead of the proposed data centre the site for development will have 600 new apartments, including 10% affordable housing units, warehouses, space for small business, and a park.

This is one of the several incidents, where new data centres in the US have been delayed or cancelled. Data Center Watch tracked the opposition to large-scale data centre projects across 28 US states between May 2024 and March 2025. They report that data centre projects worth $64 billion have been blocked or delayed by a growing wave of local, bipartisan opposition. 

Even MAGA supporters have joined the wave of opposition against the data centres. In its latest polling, Public First found that around 60% of Trump voters are worried about the rapid pace of development of AI. Around 80% of voters think that technology has to be regulated. Farmers in US have refused to give their land for data centres. 

No wonder the big tech companies spearheading AI in the US are now looking at other countries to expand their data centres. And India has rolled out several red carpets for them. Much before the AI Summit, Budget 2026 promised a tax holiday for 20 years to any country setting up data centres in India. 

The power and water guzzling nature of data centres, particularly AI data centres is not hidden from anyone. As per an estimate, in 2024 Indian data centres consumed 150 billion litres of water. US data centres, the largest number in the world (about 5,000), guzzled 163.7 billion gallons of water, or 620 billion litres, in 2021 alone. That is equal to the annual water needs of a small town. 

Companies often underreport their water and power usage, and in several countries there are no mandatory needs of disclosure. In 2023, Google reported that its........

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