Meta Warns Public Resistance Could Slow Data-Center Push

Meta President Dina Powell McCormick said Democratic wins in the midterm elections would make it harder for companies to build data centers, after opposition to the projects featured in the election season. The company says it hasn’t adequately explained the benefits of its investments. The people asked to accept those projects, meanwhile, want a say in what gets built in their communities.

Communities Push Back

At the WSJ Tech conference, Powell McCormick described the public response this way: “The visible sort of manifestation of AI is a data center, and it's something that people can say, 'I don't want this in my community,'” she said. She tied that opposition to wider public feelings about artificial intelligence, saying, “I think there's an underlying bigger issue, which is how people feel about AI in general.”

The election-season opposition puts a limit on corporate plans that executives would rather describe as inevitable. Powell McCormick said Meta believes it can improve negative consumer sentiment by showing the value of data centers in local communities and of the technology itself. That is the company’s pitch; the source doesn’t establish that communities have accepted it.

Meta has built data centers for 20 years, Powell McCormick said, because its social networking products require substantial computing power. The company has data centers in 23 states, and five projects, including one in Texas, are planned at one gigawatt or more. Those figures show the scale of the company’s buildout—and why opposition from local communities and politicians matters to its expansion.

The Company’s Local-Benefit Pitch

Powell McCormick said Meta’s approach includes paying for its own electricity, directing tax surpluses generated by data centers toward teachers and first responders, keeping the workforce local and securing bipartisan support. She said communities want local benefits from data centers and expects projects to face greater scrutiny, with assessments of whether constituents want them. These are the company’s stated commitments and expectations, not evidence in the article that the promised benefits have already been delivered.

“I think it's going to be harder,” Powell McCormick said of future construction. “It has been hard, I should say, but I also think that it's becoming clear what models work, and the states want those models that work.” Her remarks place states and constituents inside the decision-making process, even as Meta seeks to make its projects more acceptable and preserve its investments.

Powell McCormick also argued for Meta’s AI investments by invoking potential public uses. “The stakes of who builds the technology that cures cancer, that gives access to education” are significant, she said, adding that Mark [Zuckerberg, Meta CEO] is “very 'long human,' and he's betting on humans more than machines.” She said Meta believes people shouldn’t be left behind, and that technology should be “democratized” and available “in a very fair and transparent way.” Those are her words for the company’s ambitions.

Loans, Compute and Exposure

Meta is counting on its consumer AI agent Muse, which has 10 million users today and, the company believes, could grow into a business serving billions. Powell McCormick said the data-center investments could retain value even if Muse doesn’t reach that scale, because the computing capacity can be monetized. “We're getting calls every day to lease that compute [we've built], and so one way or another, we're seeing a path to monetization,” she said.

Separately, an anonymous seller has put up for sale a portfolio of data-center loans worth roughly $500 million. The auction came days after a Democratic sweep of U.S. midterm elections raised questions about the future of many projects. People familiar with the matter said the seller is taking offers on a dozen loans through a bids-wanted-in-competition process.

The portfolio includes a $25 million slice backing a large New Mexico data-center site that is part of the joint Stargate project involving OpenAI, SoftBank Group Corp. and Oracle Corp. Oracle sent the developer a notice citing force majeure for that location. The corporate buildout, political scrutiny and loan sale now sit side by side: communities are resisting projects, while companies and lenders weigh how to keep the machinery of expansion profitable.