Name: Tech companies lobbying for more data centers
Uploaded: 2025-12-22T20:36:01.253Z
Duration: 2 min 56 s
Description: Massive tech companies wanting to build more data centers in the U.S. are lobbying for support among Americans, according to a recent report by POLITICO. Gabby Miller joins CBS News with more on her reporting.

Massive tech companies wanting to build more data centers in the U.S. are lobbying for support among Americans, according to a recent report by POLITICO. Gabby Miller joins CBS News with more on her reporting.

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Tech companies and lobbyists are spending millions to address rising political and public opposition to data centers, which are essential for the artificial intelligence industry. Recent elections in states like Virginia and New Jersey highlighted voter concerns over affordability, energy costs, and the local impact of these facilities, prompting the industry to launch advertising campaigns to improve their image.

Despite claims of economic benefits, data centers provide few permanent jobs and have led to significant backlash in areas with high concentrations, such as Virginia. Lawmakers and industry representatives are now working together to develop messaging strategies ahead of the midterm elections, as they seek to address constituent concerns and shape future policy.

Tech companies lobbying for more data centers

Welcome back. Tech companies and lobbyists are investing millions of dollars to tackle a new political problem for the industry. That's data centers. Politico reports the centers are becoming toxic with voters. The data centers are essential infrastructure for the growing artificial intelligence industry. The author of that article joins me now. Gabby Miller is a tech reporter for Politico. Gabby, thank you so much for joining us on 24-7 today. We really appreciate your time. So your reporting shows the industry is taking out ads and funding campaigns to put data centers in a positive light. Is it changing the public's perception of it? Right, well, it's really to be determined at the moment, but we can see based off what happened in the November elections that this was a very politically potent issues, especially in the Virginia and New Jersey elections. So we saw that that was actually tied to the affordability costs. So we saw that issues, energy costs were going up, data centers are spreading and a lot of voters are upset about it. And so this was a winning message, especially for the gubernatorial races with Abigail Spanberger and Mikey Sherrill. And so now we're seeing the tech industry and other politicians responding, hoping that they can use this as a blueprint for a political playbook that they can use in the midterm elections. And speaking of the midterms, I mean, next year is just around the corner. So how could the midterm shape the future of data centers and the artificial intelligence industry? Right. Well, like you said at the top, there is a PR problem with these data centers. They're noisy. They're going into different communities all around the country. Right now, we've already seen issues in Virginia. There's a huge backlash. There's the highest concentration in Virginia of any other state in the country. And, you know, we're seeing that residents don't like this. They you know, we've seen companies like Metta after these the November elections go on the offense and they're really pitching these as a boon to the economy. They're bringing lots of jobs. But the fact is that they're actually bringing a very small amount of jobs. So they're bringing a lot of tax cuts to these areas. But and a lot of construction jobs, you know, those are temporary jobs that it takes to build them. But to actually run the data centers, there's actually not that that many jobs that are involved to to run them. So, you know, who is actually benefiting from these voters would like to know. And I think right now on the Hill, especially, they are in the process of crafting how to talk to constituents about these data centers who are very concerned about them being in the district. So right now we're seeing, you know, senators and lobbyists and all of them talking to one another, trying to figure out what those talking points will really look like as they head into the midterms. And we'll see if it leads to any change. Gabby Miller, thank you so much again for your time today and walking us through your article. Appreciate it. Thank you.

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Tech companies lobbying for more data centers

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