미국 주들이 지역 반발 속에서 투기적 데이터센터 프로젝트를 억제하기 위해 대용량 관세와 기타 조치를 채택한다.

Community opposition has emerged as a major barrier to data center development in the United States, alongside other significant challenges including construction labor shortages, long lead times for critical electrical equipment, limited power availability in key markets, and uncertainty around consumer demand for artificial intelligence tools.

The challenge of speculative data center requests poses a persistent conundrum for U.S. electric utilities. As one May 2025 Utility Dive headline framed it: "A fraction of proposed data centers will get built. Utilities are wising up." More than a year later, the trajectory remains uncertain as utilities and their regulators introduce new vetting requirements.

More than $170 billion in AI data center capacity has been blocked, withdrawn, or stalled by community opposition since January 2024, according to energy advisory firm Relae, formerly Carbon Direct. That represents a substantial portion of the roughly $581 billion Goldman Sachs expects the major hyperscalers to spend in the U.S. on AI infrastructure—including data center construction—this year.

Despite these headwinds, market analysts see no indication that the AI-driven construction boom will disappear anytime soon. The underlying demand for data center capacity continues to drive development efforts forward, even as opposition and regulatory scrutiny reshape the landscape.