142 Gatherings, $98 Billion Blocked: The Anti-AI Data Center Revolt Gains Momentum

The weekend of July 18 will be remembered as the day the anti-AI data center protest escalated in the United States. The collective Humans First had announced 125 gatherings in over 20 states; the final count, once the dust settled, rose to 142 protests across 42 states. But the real figure that should alarm the AI industry is not that one. It is this: since the beginning of the year, this movement has already derailed approximately $98 billion worth of data center projects and forced the adoption of over 300 pieces of legislation in state parliaments. Local dissent has transformed into a national power struggle, and no one in Washington seems to have a plan to stop it.

Key points of this article:

• On July 18, 142 anti-AI data center protests took place in 42 U.S. states, illustrating a spectacular rise of the movement.
• Since the beginning of the year, $98 billion worth of data center projects have been canceled, and over 300 laws have been proposed to regulate this industry.

From 125 to 142: the movement has grown faster than expected

The preliminary figures from July 18 were revised upward in the days that followed. According to an updated count reported by US News, there were ultimately 142 gatherings in 42 states, not 125 in about twenty states as initially reported. Texas and Georgia remain at the forefront of the movement, unsurprisingly: these are the two states where mega data center projects are growing the fastest.

But the true measure of the phenomenon's scale is found elsewhere. Local opposition groups have increased from 396 to over 800 since the beginning of the year, now active in 49 of the 50 U.S. states. And on the legislative front, the tally is steep for the industry: over 300 bills aimed at regulating, slowing down, or taxing data centers have been introduced in state parliaments in the first half of 2026, a pace that has already matched, in just three months, everything that was proposed throughout 2025.

Virginia plays the tax card, other states eye the moratorium

After the one-year moratorium signed by Kathy Hochul in New York State on July 14, other states have accelerated their own measures. Vermont is working on a bill that would freeze all new construction until 2030.

Georgia, on the other hand, is considering a one-year ban starting July 1, 2026. The only sour note for the movement: in Ohio, a citizen initiative to enshrine a ban on data centers over 25 MW in the state constitution failed due to lack of signatures. Only 70,000 were collected out of the 413,488 needed.

Virginia strikes a major blow with a different approach: rather than banning, taxing. Since July 1, the state has imposed a 1.1 cent per kilowatt-hour tax on the electricity consumption of data centers, a national first that opens a third path, between pure moratorium and status quo, likely to inspire other legislatures.

The accusation poisoning the MAGA-eco alliance

The political aspect of the affair has soured. Marc Andreessen shared this week an investigation by conservative journalist Jordan Schachtel, titled "Built to Deceive," which accuses Humans First of being founded by former members of the Center for AI Safety, an organization linked to effective altruism, funded with over $12 million by Coefficient Giving, the fund of progressive billionaire Dustin Moskovitz.

David Sacks, co-chair of the White House's scientific and technological council, labeled the movement a "disguised censorship operation" in a message seen over 21 million times on X. Elon Musk immediately amplified the accusation.

A spokesperson for Humans First firmly denied to the Daily Caller: "I don’t know what connections to Dustin Moskovitz you’re talking about. We have never met him, we have never received any money from him."

Amy Kremer, co-founder of Humans First, takes care to distinguish her movement from the Tea Party she once helped to found: less an ideological crusade than a bipartisan coalition united by a concrete grievance, the electricity bill. Her demands remain precise and negotiable: transparent permitting processes, enhanced environmental protections, unionized jobs on construction sites, and contractual accountability for developers who fail to meet their commitments.

The battle thus already transcends the mere energy question: it invites a broader debate about who, the federal government or local communities, should arbitrate between the electrical appetite of artificial intelligence and that, equally real, of American households.

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