Anthropic IPO Faces Voter Backlash Over Data Centers

Communities opposed data center-related ballot measures in 40 out of 41 cases in Tuesday’s midterm elections, as Anthropic prepared for a possible Nasdaq debut and disclosed about $895.4 billion in committed spending, mostly for computing and infrastructure. Its push to expand AI capacity is colliding with residents resisting facilities they associate with higher bills, environmental harm and job losses.

“People don't want a data center going near them if it's just going to house AI that's going to help a big tech company profit,” Maura Austin, a behavioral scientist at the University of Virginia, told CNBC. Her words land beside Anthropic’s planned commitments and its ambition to enter public markets at a valuation investors believe could reach $1 trillion to $1.5 trillion.

The Local Pushback

More than half of voters said AI data centers were a “crucial” or “major factor” in deciding whom to support for Congress, according to an NBC News exit poll. Candidates advocating more stringent AI regulation won handily in Michigan, Ohio, Texas and Georgia, which will all now have Democratic governors. Democrats also won sweeping congressional victories across the country.

Opposition is showing up in elections and ballot measures. Yet the facilities remain central to companies’ plans. Anthropic said in an amended IPO prospectus this week that opposition to data center development has become more organized across jurisdictions. It also warned that its public profile could bring particular scrutiny to projects associated with the company.

For people already facing inflation and stubbornly high gas prices, the proposed sites raise immediate concerns: data centers could worsen environmental harms, raise utility bills and contribute to job losses. For many, a nearby facility has become a physical expression of broader opposition to AI.

A Billion-Dollar Spotlight

Anthropic is preparing for a possible mid-November Nasdaq debut. It could become the first pure-play AI company to reach public markets, creating new billionaires and many more millionaires. The company is targeting a valuation of $1 trillion to $1.5 trillion, down from a $2 trillion target floated in recent months. Anthropic declined to comment.

The market has turned against AI-linked companies. The Nasdaq recorded its steepest drop in 19 months on Thursday and was down at the start of November, following October’s worst month since March 2025. Chipmakers and neocloud companies, among those most closely tied to the AI buildout, took the hardest hit.

Anthropic has tried to present itself as safety-conscious and attentive to AI’s potential risks and benefits. CEO Dario Amodei co-founded it with a handful of researchers who defected from OpenAI, now its chief rival. Best known for its Claude family of AI models, Anthropic primarily sells products and services to other businesses. Its enterprise focus has helped it avoid becoming AI’s public face, a distinction left to OpenAI and CEO Sam Altman.

Scrutiny Comes With the Listing

“Being a public company, just that by itself pushes you in the limelight,” Reena Aggarwal, a professor of finance at Georgetown University, said. “And then AI is such a hot-button issue that Anthropic will be in the limelight even more.”

Public markets require greater transparency, and the debut could attract new users, Matt Kennedy, a senior IPO market strategist at Renaissance Capital, said. He argued Anthropic shouldn't face harsher criticism than a comparable private company, adding: “I would say that a public company does not deserve more criticisms than a comparable private company.”

AI backlash accelerated over the summer after high-profile safety and security incidents rattled the public. Technology hyperscalers raised capital expenditure forecasts, each reaching into the hundreds of billions of dollars, while Anthropic and OpenAI sought to expand data center capacity quickly to train models and serve customers.

A University of Southern California survey published on Monday found that 71% of respondents don't trust big tech companies to act in society’s best interest “at all” in data center development. Amodei called the public mood a “crisis of trust” in an August post on X, saying people believe companies, the government and the tech industry are always “cooking up some new way to screw them over.” As Anthropic begins providing quarterly financial updates, rebuilding public confidence remains a challenge. “Once you've lost trust, it's hard to gain it back,” Wändi Bruine de Bruin, a professor at the University of Southern California's Schaeffer Institute, said. “The numbers are not good.”