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Exclusive: Americans’ Opposition to Data Centers Has Finally Plateaued

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The American public’s dislike for data centers may finally be starting to plateau and even decline, albeit at staggeringly high levels, a new poll finds.

Seventy-one percent of Americans said they would oppose a data center being built near where they live, according to a new Heatmap Pro poll conducted by Embold Research earlier this month.

That is an abysmal finding for technology companies and would-be developers of the computing facilities. But it actually represents an improvement from previous polling, and it suggests one of the fastest shifts in public opinion in recent memory may be tapering off.

That shift has been swift. As recently as September of last year, about 43% of Americans said they would support a data center being built near where they live, and Americans broadly appeared to be evenly split on the infrastructure, according to Heatmap Pro polling. Eleven months later, 75% of Americans told the same poll that they would oppose a nearby data center — a 32 point shift. That monumental turnaround helped make data centers a defining issue in this election cycle.

Now our new survey shows that Americans’ rejection of the enormous computing facilities may finally be slowing down. The small observed drop, which only slightly exceeds the survey’s margin of error, was driven by a four-point drop in the share of Americans who said they would “strongly oppose” the technology.

While Americans of all parties improved their view of data centers, the change was most pronounced among Republicans. In August, only 23% of GOP voters said that they would support a data center being built near where they live. Today, after weeks of campaigning by President Trump, 34% would back such a plan. At the same time, the percentage of Republicans who said they would oppose a nearby data center fell from 66% to 58%. Data centers’ standing among independents improved by nine points during the same period.

Democrats remain largely unified against the infrastructure, and data centers’ improvement among that group was just outside the margin of error.

While Americans of every age, race, gender, and partisan ID remain more opposed to local data center development than in favor of it, their standing has also improved among men since the summer. In August, 21% of men said they would support a data center being built near where they live. Now, 28% of men would support one.

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