The governor of Mississippi has hit back at calls to pause data center construction across the US.

Governor Tate Reeves claimed that those seeking a data center moratorium were "yearning to submit our society to outside forces: mobs, international councils, or communist China."

Reeves blamed moratorium proponents on the "far left," although the data center pushback has been a rare bipartisan movement. Research by Data Center Watch found that 55 percent of Republicans and 45 percent of Democrats in districts with large data center projects have taken public positions against the developments.

"I understand individuals who would rather not have any industrial project in their backyard. We all choose where to live, whether it’s urban, suburban, agrarian, or industrial," Reeves said.

"I do not understand the impulse to prevent our country from advancing technologically- except as civilizational suicide. "

He continued: "I don’t want to go gently. I love this country, and want her to rise. That’s why Mississippi has become the home of the world’s most impressive supercomputers. We are committed to America and American power. We know that being the hub of the world’s most awesome technology will inevitably bring prosperity and authority to our state. There is nobody better than Mississippians to wield it."

His comments follow plans for a data center moratorium in Denver, and an unlikely proposal from Senator Bernie Sanders for a nationwide pause.

"I am tempted to sit back and let other states fritter away the generational chance to build. To laugh at their short-sightedness," Reeves said. "But the best path for all of us would be to see America dominate, because our foes are not like us. They don’t believe in order, except brutal order under their heels. They don’t believe in prosperity, except for that gained through fraud and plunder. They don’t think or act in a way I can respect as an American."

Data centers have been blamed for a dramatic rise in electricity prices - whether this is fully accurate remains understudied, with inflation and other issues also causing costs to rise - as well as impact on water supplies. Some facilities do use water, while others use little to none, making broad generalizations flawed.

President Donald Trump has faced criticism from the right, counter to Reeves' claims, over the rapid buildout of data centers, and has sought to push hyperscalers and AI giants to cover the cost of any power infrastructure buildout. Microsoft, Amazon, OpenAI, Anthropic, and others have made commitments along these lines.

Other local pushbacks have focused on loss of habitat, and concerns over air quality or noise.

Senator Sanders, meanwhile, has sought to frame data centers as the physical manifestation of AI job losses. "AI will likely have a catastrophic impact on the lives of working-class Americans, eliminating tens of millions of blue- and white-collar jobs in every sector of our economy," he said this week.

"The time for action is now. We need a federal moratorium on AI data centers."

Mississippi is home to a number of large data center projects, notably xAI's controversial Colossus 2 project, which has deployed unpermitted gas turbines (the company did the same with Colossus 1).

This is not usual practice for the data center sector, with senior executives in the industry telling DCD that xAI's actions risk impacting perception across the country. CEO Elon Musk has pledged to invest $20bn in the state.

Outside of xAI, Compass is building a $10bn campus in Meridian, Mississippi, Avaio Digital Partners has a $6bn project underway in Brandon, and Amazon is spending $3bn in Vicksburg.