The backlash about data centers might really just be about electricity

Big Tech sees a culture war over progress. But the real fault line is electricity: drawing it from the grid and generating it onsite provoke different kinds of backlash, neither easily solved by public relations. As voters went to the polls across the US last week, I was in Ashburn, Virginia, part of what's known as Data Center Alley--the world's largest data center hub. It's also where the backlash now sweeping the country arguably first began taking shape. Driving through it is surreal. Concrete monolithic buildings loom along every major road, with names like Skybox and CloudHQ.