All the latest updates on AI data centers

A high-stakes California ballot measure pitched as a fast track for “essential” infrastructure could wind up giving data center developers a loophole to evade public scrutiny, environmental advocates warn.

Proposition 45 would shorten timelines for state-mandated environmental assessments for eligible projects and make it more difficult for residents to challenge those projects in court. Proponents say passing the measure would help alleviate the state’s housing shortage and meet rising electricity demand with new renewable energy projects. Environmental groups and some legal experts, however, warn that data center developers backing the proposition could escape scrutiny if Prop 45 becomes law.

Maine Sen. Susan Collins, a Republican, was midway through defending her record during the final debate of the midterms when an audience member cut her short.

“I’m terrified,” a man shouted. “AI data centers are destroying our climate. They are poisoning our water.” Collins brushed off the outburst, tying the man to her Democratic challenger, Troy Jackson. But the fear echoing through the auditorium wasn’t so easily dismissed. Just days before voters head to the polls, the rapid expansion of resource-hungry data centers has exploded into one of Maine’s most volatile campaign issues.

The US power sector could release 42 percent more planet-heating carbon dioxide pollution by 2030 than it did in 2025 as it builds out more fossil fuel infrastructure to meet data center electricity demand, according to a new analysis by the Sierra Club. That would essentially wipe out 15 years of greenhouse gas reductions.

CO2 emissions from electricity generation would increase by 618 million tons by the end of the decade if planned AI projects are constructed. That’s roughly equivalent to carbon pollution from the electricity use of 128,788,523 homes in a year.

Ask Texas NAACP president Gary Bledsoe what it’s been like to see data center developers descend upon Austin and its surrounding suburbs and he can rattle off project after project facing opposition from locals.

There’s the fight in Taylor over plans to build a data center at a site that’s supposed to be a park. Temple, around 40 miles away, is another sore spot, Bledsoe says. The mayor and City Council members there face recall attempts over data center developments. And some 30 miles outside of Austin, San Marcos became the first city in all of Texas to ban data centers.

If there’s one issue that seems to activate all kinds of voters in 2026, it’s data centers. The rapid buildout of these massive server storage facilities — and the infrastructure construction and expenses that come with them — has sparked local opposition in communities across the country and become a major issue in many congressional and gubernatorial campaigns.

At the same time, tech money has been pouring into many of these races. Leading the Future, a super PAC backed by venture capitalist Marc Andreessen and OpenAI President Greg Brockman, has already spent $45 million in a year. And Public First Action, an Anthropic-backed group that says it supports AI safeguards, says it’s raised $80 million. Both have funded Democratic and Republican-aligned groups. Other super PACs see an opportunity to push for stricter AI policies, like the recently created Tomorrow Together, which launched $4 million in ads for battleground House races, with messages about data center development and AI safety.

As it prepares to go public, Anthropic’s S-1 filing makes generative AI’s methane dependency glaringly obvious.

In documents filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission Monday, Anthropic acknowledges that data centers are becoming increasingly reliant on “natural gas” — the fossil fuel industry’s marketing term for what is primarily methane — leaving the company’s AI data center buildout vulnerable to rising fuel costs and existing supply chain constraints. And in a possible catch-22, Anthropic admits that rising global temperatures — a symptom of burning fossil fuels — will increase the company’s operating costs.

A rush of new data centers could bring air pollution roaring back to levels not seen since the 2000s in Texas, which has become ground zero for the physical infrastructure behind generative AI.

New and proposed data centers are demanding a tremendous amount of electricity. How developers and utilities meet that demand — with gas turbines or renewable energy — will determine just how dirty things will get. So far, though, things are looking grim.

The US is building more fossil fuel infrastructure than it has in a decade while renewable energy growth slows down, a new report shows.

Electricity demand is also climbing faster than it has in more than a decade with more data centers, factories, and electric vehicles plugging into the grid. Despite those growing demands, the Trump administration has sought to hobble the wind and solar industries in favor of fossil fuels.

Amazon has signed an agreement with X-energy and American Electric Power (AEP) to fund the building of a new nuclear energy facility in Indiana. The proposed plant, which would replace the now defunct coal-fueled Breed Generating Station in Fairbanks, Sullivan County, aims to provide up to 960 megawatts of carbon-free energy for both the regional power grid and Amazon’s data centers.

No timeline for construction or operation has been announced for the facility, which Amazon says “could” create 1,000 construction jobs and 100 permanent roles. The facility in Indiana is targeting to build 12 Xe-100 SMR’s, an advanced (but unproven) reactor that’s still undergoing development and licensing. These reactors can be cooled using either air, water, or a hybrid solution of both, which Amazon says should allow them to be deployed in water-constrained regions without impacting water demand in local communities.

Google announced a new agreement to update six nuclear power plant sites across the US as the tech giant seeks to generate more electricity for its power-hungry data centers.

Google signed the 20-year deal with Constellation, the leading nuclear power plant operator in the US. The power purchase agreement is meant to guarantee the revenue needed to cover the cost of efficiency upgrades at existing nuclear plants and “represents more than $4.3 billion of new investment by Constellation,” according to the press release.

San Antonio City Councilmember Ric Galvan remembers when data centers first arrived in his city in the 2000s, looking like relatively unassuming office buildings. But that’s changed in recent years, as data centers have grown into massive “hyperscale” facilities spanning millions of square feet and housing the physical infrastructure for AI.

There are now more than a dozen data centers in Galvan’s roughly 55-square-mile district, and he expects that number to grow to around 20 over the next few years if proposed projects are completed. They’re clustered along two main roads, concentrating nuisances in the same neighborhoods: traffic and trees cut down during construction, followed by constant bright lights and noise when the data center is operating.