Conservatives split from Silicon Valley allies as datacenter backlash grows

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Hello, and welcome to TechScape. I’m your host, Blake Montgomery, listening to Dolly Parton in the wake of her death. I was lucky enough to see her in concert a decade ago in California, in the same arena where Google now hosts its annual I/O conference. It’s been a long time, and all my iPhone 4 photos are so blurry you can barely tell it’s a musical performance, but my memory is clear enough to compensate. She told many stories about her childhood, which led into a trio of fabulous songs: My Tennessee Mountain Home, Applejack and Dr Robert F Thomas. They’re still my favorites.

Tech dissection: datacenters divide Silicon Valley from US conservatives (except Trump)

Silicon Valley has underestimated the backlash to datacenters in the US by a country mile. That opposition has now achieved substantial political momentum: it’s blocking proposed projects, nixing tax and power incentives, tilting the balance of the upcoming US elections.

The backlash has even led US conservatives – politicians and constituents – to split from wealthy allies in Silicon Valley.

The opposition to datacenters in the US has become so widespread that it is crossing partisan lines. Several prominent US conservatives, including the governors of Texas and Florida, have condemned datacenters’ enormous electricity usage. Both states’ governors hew closely to Trump on the majority of issues, but both have implemented restrictions on datacenters’ access to their states’ power grids.

All of the candidates in the race to become Ohio’s next governor, including a member of Trump’s own administration, have called for restrictions on new datacenters. Meanwhile, the liberal governor of New York has implemented a yearlong moratorium on new hyper-scale datacenters.

How did the tech giants’ leaders set themselves up so disastrously? AI CEOs have “failed miserably” to endear the public to their cause, noted Chamath Palihapitiya, a venture capitalist and co-host of the Silicon Valley podcast All In, on X.

Executives such as Sam Altman and Dario Amodei have focused their attention on Trump, legislators and other power players in their bids for huge investments. It turns out the public, uncourted by AI executives, also has a say in whether the technology deserves so many public resources.

Communities across the country are bristling at the emergence of the behemoths in their backyards. They’re raising questions about their impact on the environment, and the effect on their utility bills. But there’s more. Datacenters have become a stand-in for grievances against technology companies – harms to children, the feeling of too-rapid societal change with no opt-out, the loss of control over our attention, the extreme concentration of political and economic power in the hands of a few inhumane men – and the tide of that resentment is rising.

“I’m not anti-datacenter. I’m anti-the people who run datacenters,” Benny Johnson, a popular rightwing commentator on social media, said in response to Palihapitiya, adding: “I have critical policymakers on my live show daily. The Governor of Texas was on yesterday. I’ve received ZERO effort from anyone in the tech industry to even try to explain datacenters …”

Palihapitiya argues the backlash will grow.

“Data centers have unfortunately become THE symbolic representation of the asymmetric upside for a very narrow tech elite and a class that are untrustworthy. Inasmuch, the safer bet may be that the pushback and resistance grows …” he wrote.

The technorati on X seem to have recently woken up to the new hostile political reality, and over the weekend spilled some ink bristling at it. Many rejected the backlash as myopic, shallow and short-lived. “Any politician opposed to data centers is unqualified to hold public office,” Gavin Baker, an influential venture capitalist, tweeted on Saturday.

On Monday, Donald Trump weighed in. “Let data reign,” he wrote on Truth Social

Truth Social users answered the president’s post en masse and with uncharacteristic rage.

As these battles reach a boil in the US, they’re heating up in other parts of the world. Scotland and Australia are seeing their own backlashes unite bitter political foes in opposition to datacenters, fueled by the widespread perception of Silicon Valley as an extractive, neocolonial force.

Monday was Tim Cook’s last day as Apple CEO

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AI on the job: answering your questions about artificial intelligence in the workplace

We’re trying something new! As part of our year-long Reworked series of stories on AI and work, editor Danielle Abril will answer readers’ questions about the changing workplace. You can ask a question for future editions by emailing us at [email protected].

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This week, readers ask: what skills do I need to learn to stay employable as more companies adopt AI?

For workers whose jobs may be affected by AI, the takeaways from several studies all point to a somewhat counterintuitive answer: yes, you should familiarize yourself with generative AI tools. But at least as important: sharpen your human skills. Judgment, adaptability, analytical thinking and leadership all may become differentiators as AI gets embedded in work.

Ask yourself: can you critically judge AI’s output? Can you quickly adapt to change? Can you problem-solve and delegate tasks efficiently to humans and AI?

“Learn to work with AI in your field, while continuing to build the human and domain skills that help you apply it well,” said Elena Magrini, head of global research for labor market intelligence firm Lightcast.io.

The tasks that employers are adding to AI-exposed jobs often rely on human skills such as empathy, judgment and creativity, according to PwC’s 2026 Global AI Jobs Barometer report, which is based on 1bn job ads from six continents. Junior roles are now more likely to require traditionally senior skills like emotional intelligence and leadership, the report stated. In LinkedIn’s 2026 Skills on the Rise report, based on skills members added to their profiles along with those held by recent hires, in-demand skills included team management, cross-functional collaboration and mentorship, as well as prompt engineering and AI business strategy.

One way to start developing experience in leadership and problem solving is at your own company. Work with your boss to find internal training and mentorship programs. And consider volunteering for tasks that may allow you to boost your weaker skills like leading a cross-functional project that requires you to delegate and communicate often. Beyond your employer, companies such as LinkedIn and Coursera offer free online courses for soft and technical skills and OpenAI and Anthropic provide educational materials on how to use AI.

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Ask us about AI and work! Email [email protected] with your questions, and we’ll answer them in future editions of the newsletter.