Don't Waste a Good Backlash: Turning Data Center Revolts into Community Deals

After Democrats won the midterms, over $2.5 trillion was wiped off the Nasdaq as investors fled the AI trade, and US voters passed 43 of 44 local measures to slow data centers down. The Lanarkshire deal, where DataVita pays up to $100,000 per megawatt per year into a community fund, shows how grid-queue leverage can be turned into local benefits. Oracle's New Mexico package worked out to a one-off $84,000 per megawatt, nearly 18 times stingier.