The independent senator from Vermont, Bernie Sanders, has called for a moratorium on AI data center construction.

The one-time presidential hopeful said that a delay to building would “give democracy a chance to catch up, and ensure that the benefits of technology work for all of us, not just the one percent.”

In a video posted to X, Sanders said that "AI and robotics are the most transformative technology in the history of humanity," but added that we need to be thinking about "Who is aggressively pushing AI?... people like Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, and other multi-billionaires."

He continued: "Do you believe that these multi-billionaires are staying up nights worrying about what AI and robotics will do to the working families of our country and the world? I don't think so. I think that these very, very rich men want even more wealth and even more power, and for a whole bunch of reasons, that's very dangerous."

Sanders added that the technology could be a risk to the economy, and quoted AI executive statements about the elimination of jobs. "How will people survive if they have no income?" Sanders said. "Very few members of Congress are seriously thinking about this."

He also brought up digital isolation, where younger people may spend more time conversing with AI than other humans.

"This process is moving very, very quickly, and we need to slow it down," Sanders said.

Data center moratoria are not without precedent, but previous construction pauses have been focused on the local impact.

Amsterdam blocked the construction of data centers from 2019 for a year (and has made it hard to build even after the moratorium was lifted), with officials pointing to limited space in the municipality and the risk that data centers could ruin the look and accessibility of the area. When we profiled the market five years after the ban, the industry had yet to fully recover.

The broader Dutch government halted new hyperscale data center approvals in 2022 for nine months, again citing a lack of space.

In Ireland, EirGrid in 2022 enacted a de facto moratorium on new data center builds around Dublin for as much as six years due to grid connection concerns. Singapore has similarly had a moratorium on new data center developments since 2019 due to the city-state's limited power, but it recently said it could support 200MW of new capacity.

In the US, amid growing local pushback against large data center projects, a patchwork of moratoria has sprung up around the country.

Multiple councils across Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, Kansas, Ohio, Tennessee, Missouri, Idaho, and Pennsylvania have all introduced moratoria of different levels against data center development or denied ordinance changes that would allow them to be built. Various counties in Indiana have blocked new developments.