Hacker News Reader

Comment by tocs3 | Hacker News Reader

It is not as if data center development is suddenly ended. Democrats have paired up with tech in the past. Tech might want to make friends with those that hold the purse stings. Regulatory capture is still in the cards. Projects on the way are still on the way.

It might be that tech would like some regulations / laws that slow data center development (maybe a good thing) if they think it has just turned into an arms race that has gotten out of hand. Investors might think this also (S&P 500 up ~1.5% as I write this).

View on HN

Negative sentiment on data centers is bipartisan. It’s incredibly strong right now.

Regulatory capture won’t save the tech industry if they can’t improve public sentiment.

They’ve been talking down to the average person, doom-bragging about the existential crisis of AI to juice investors, and people like Sam Altman have been generally been acting like Bond villains.

I think their shortsightedness has backed them into a corner of a potentially highly regulated environment where building a data center is harder than building a chemical plant.

You mean like the Democrats were so hard on the financial industry during / after the Occupy Wall Street movement. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occupy_Wall_Street

The Democrats are just politicians and Americans will have to keep there focus if they want things done.

What you’ve brought up is a non-sequitur.

The polling is clear, both sides of the aisle are negative on data centers:

https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2026/09/22/americans...

https://www.annenbergpublicpolicycenter.org/opposition-to-lo...

> Majorities of Democrats (69%), Republicans (54%) and independents (53%) oppose new local data centers. Opposition is highest among young adults under 30 (70%) and declines to 57% among those 65 and older, the inverse of what one might expect for a new technology

I do not think it is to much of a non-sequitur but I do hope you are right.

I guess it’s possible that it could be turned partisan, and in that case it’s not a non-sequitur. I just see it as less likely than with Occupy Wall Street.

I’m not sure that the right is currently able to offer an offramp for people with frustrations or opposition to data centers like the Tea Party offered for Occupy Wall Street.

I also see it as an issue where their construction overwhelmingly impacts red districts, since they tend to be built where land is cheap where suburbs border rural areas.

> Democrats have paired up with tech in the past

Yeah, and both their politicans and constituencies were directly betrayed by them. They made their bed and now they must sleep in it. Many of the dems who won made data centers and AI a part of their platfrom.

> Tech might want to make friends…

They might find that tricky after they sold out to right wing causes last election.

And while before you could say well money overrules everything, they outspendint Democrats like crazy and still got wiped out. So if you want to keep your job as a politician suddenly more fundraise no longer means more advantage

But the money was going to the Republicans, who did what they were told. The money may not actually win the election but it can (not always, but it looks like often) buy politicians.

Regulations just mean Democrats get to pick the winners, which will most likely match donations.

Which is what Republicans were already doing, while agreeing to NDAs that kept their constituents in the dark.

With the mandate from voters, hopefully we see less secret development and more open communication about the deals being cut.

I am a little hopeful here in Texas. We have needed change for a while. Still, we are talking about politicians and while there maybe be a mandate from voters it is a long and narrow road to solutions that are good for everybody (especially the constituents).

The nice thing about politicians is they can be held accountable by constituents, per the Constitution.

Data center developers, who should be equally distrusted (but seem to get a pass), are not beholden to you.

It will take developers and politicians working together to find a solution, rather than let developers do whatever they can to maximize profits without regulation or public process.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com