Datacenters and AI make big tech a target in the US midterms

Summary

Datacenters, AI and distaste for the billionaires building them have soured many Americans on big tech, and the issue is showing up in midterm campaigning. The Guardian reports a campaign ad that shows concrete datacenters crashing onto a river, a suburban park and farmland, with a narrator saying the facilities are coming for local rivers, neighborhoods and farmland. The ad blames Brent Taylor for writing the law that allowed datacenters to take over Tennessee. The Guardian's article is a longer feature, and this summary covers only the opening reporting.

Timeline

1. The Guardian

   22 Oct 2026, 12:00 UTCSource ↗

   The Guardian reports that datacenters, AI and distaste for the billionaires developing them have soured Americans on big tech, and that a campaign ad portrays datacenters as a threat to rivers, neighborhoods and farmland, blaming Brent Taylor for a Tennessee datacenter law.