Communities are blocking billions in data centers. Big Tech has wagered $1 trillion otherwise

data center (Credit: Alisha Jucevic for The Washington Post via Getty Images)

The town of Saline, Michigan, didn’t want a $16 billion data center in its backyard. Residents voted against it. Weeks later, as Fortune‘s Sharon Goldman reported, construction began anyway.

That dynamic — community opposition steamrolled by corporate momentum — is playing out across America at accelerating speed. At least 48 data center projects representing $156 billion in investment were blocked or stalled by local opposition in 2025 alone, according to Miquel Vila, a supply chain and political risk analyst at 10a Labs who maintains the Data Center Watch initiative.