One of the more curious developments of the artificial intelligence revolution is that its most visible political enemy has turned out to be a windowless warehouse filled with computers. Data centers, once infrastructure that interested few outside the tech industry and planning commissions, are becoming objects of intense opposition worldwide. But they are an avatar for something else: The increasingly powerful fear and loathing of AI.

The particulars vary. In Ireland, where data centers consumed 22% of the country’s electricity in 2024, their expansion has become entangled with energy and climate politics. Opposition in Chile has focused on water, while projects in the Netherlands have encountered environmental restrictions. Civil-rights groups in South Africa are calling for a pause in data-center expansion over electricity, water, and land. What looked like unrelated local disputes is beginning to resemble a global political phenomenon.