People Would Rather Have An Amazon Warehouse In Their Backyard Than A Data Center
Lloyd
People Would Rather Have An Amazon Warehouse In Their Backyard Than A Data Center
Data Centers Are Losing the Neighborhood Vote — Here Is Why That Matters Most people do not want a data center built near their home. That is the clear takeaway from two major polls published in early 2026 — and the numbers are far more dramatic than the tech industry might have expected. As artificial intelligence continues its explosive growth, the infrastructure powering it is running into a very human problem: local resistance. What the Polls Actually Found A Harvard and MIT survey conducted in November 2025 asked roughly 1,000 Americans how they felt about various industrial facilities being built in their neighborhoods. Data centers landed at 40% support and 32% opposition — numbers that might sound acceptable until you put them next to the competition. People said they would rather have an e-commerce warehouse next door. That comparison is striking. Warehouses are loud, they bring heavy truck traffic, and they are hardly considered glamorous neighbors. Yet data centers — often marke…
