Tens of billions of dollars of data center projects in the US have been impacted by resistance from local residents, according to a new report.

Data Center Watch has published a report claiming that $64 billion worth of American data center projects were ‘threatened’ because of grassroots opposition.

The organization is backed by 10a Labs, an intelligence company specializing in AI security. Led by Robert McKenzie, a former adjunct professor of international and public affairs at Columbia University, it provides “intelligence collection, investigative research, and analysis for AI unicorns, Fortune 10 companies, and US tech leaders.”

The report claimed that $18bn worth of projects were ‘blocked’ and a further $46bn more were ‘delayed’ in the two years prior to March 2025.

It primarily attributed this opposition to local concern, identifying several “common themes” of opposition, such as “higher utility bills, water consumption, noise, impact on property value, and green space preservation.”

However, the report’s claims should be read with close attention to its definitions. For instance, ‘blocked’ projects include cases where a “company submits a new proposal with similar characteristics in a different but nearby location after withdrawing a previous project.”

Two examples, which amount to $14.5bn out of the total $18bn, fit this criterion.

The first is attributable to Tract, a company specializing in ‘master-planned’ data center parks, which withdrew a $14bn, 1,000-acre project located in Maricopa County, Arizona, in May 2024. Tract then announced in August of the same year that they had acquired a land parcel - double the size of the original project - within the same county for a data center park.

Whether Tract had already intended to develop a second facility prior to the withdrawal of the first is unclear. Grant von Rooyen, Tract’s CEO, previously told DCD that the company “very rarely [goes] into a market with only one solution… [Tract] will ultimately have multiple solutions.”

The second was a $500 million, 50MW facility proposed by DC Blox, an American data center operator, in Henrico County, Virginia. The project was deferred in July 2024, withdrawn in November 2024, and then re-announced in February 2025. The facility is set to be built on the same site, albeit smaller in size.

The report’s definition of ‘delayed’ also includes “extended regulatory reviews, temporary permit denials, legal challenges, or significant opposition from local communities that [force] developers to modify or postpone their plans.”

Importantly, the report does not opine on whether the opposition to data centers is primarily responsible for blocking or delaying projects.

It also does not assess whether opposition has been successful or not; rather its stated objective is to “[catalog] and [analyze] the rise in local opposition to data center projects across the United States. It focuses on projects blocked or delayed over the past two years amid permitting or regulatory challenges.”

The report goes on to state that it “does not assess — or in any way seek to diminish — the motivations or merits of activist concerns; such evaluation is simply outside the scope.”

It also notes that political opposition to data centers is bipartisan, with protests occurring in both Republican and Democratic-majority states. Virginia, which has the highest concentration of data centers in the world, was identified as an area with a high concentration of opposition.

DCD has previously covered this, in addition to local opposition to data center projects in Alabama, Colorado, Missouri, and other states.

The report used a “combination of AI tools (including large language models) and human analysts” to produce its findings. Data Center Watch said that the report “leverages open-source intelligence."

Data Center Watch told DCD that the report was aimed at “infrastructure investors, developers, and policymakers—anyone looking to better understand the emerging political risks facing data center expansion across the US.” It is the organization's first public release.