The U.S. AI buildout is running into a harder constraint than GPUs: permission.

The Information’s new map finds 300+ state and local data-center bans or moratoriums since 2023, with 275+ passed this year and 75+ still under consideration; resistance is strongest in the Midwest and South, exactly where hyperscalers want cheap land and megawatt-scale power.

But the backlash against data centers is outrunning the facts.

The most current datacenter is increasingly designed to solve the two biggest fears: water and power bills.

Start with water. Microsoft’s next-generation AI data centers use chip-level, closed-loop cooling that consumes zero water for cooling and can avoid more than 125 million liters per year per site.

Its fleetwide water-use efficiency has already improved 39% since 2021, to 0.30 liters per kWh.

Google reports that 86% of its freshwater withdrawals come from low- or medium-risk sources, and its global data-center fleet runs at a 1.09 PUE versus a 1.56 industry average—meaning far less wasted overhead energy.

Electric bills are not automatically shifted to households, either. A recent causal study of U.S. retail rates from 2015–2024 found data centers modestly lowered average rates by spreading fixed grid costs across more electricity sales.

And “bring your own power” is already the new trend - e.g. Google’s 500 MW nuclear deal, Microsoft’s 835 MW Three Mile Island agreement, and Meta’s 1,121 MW nuclear contract.