Here's all the ways that data center controversies have transformed the midterm elections

(AP) — The snowballing opposition to data centers in communities across the United States has transformed the midterm election landscape, thrown a wrench into the plans of the world’s richest companies and brought perhaps the industry’s biggest booster, President Donald Trump, to its defense. It’s a dramatic shift from two years ago, when few people had even heard of a data center. But the late 2022 debut of OpenAI’s ChatGPT ignited worldwide demand for chatbots and other generative AI products that typically require large amounts of computing power to train and operate.

Now, Oracle, Meta, Google, Amazon and Microsoft expect to plunge more than $700 billion into data centers in the U.S. Here are some takeaways from the shifting politics of data centers. Sprawling into rural America Tech giants and developers need huge tracts of land to accommodate mammoth computing warehouses, so they’ve been exploring deeper into rural America.

The push has united conservative ranching and farming communities with left-leaning environmental advocacy groups, who share a combined concern about drought-stricken waterways, pollution in food-growing areas and shrinking farmland. In New Mexico, where Oracle and OpenAI are building Project Jupiter, a $165 billion data center complex planned near the Mexican border, concerns over dwindling water supplies are mounting. There, the Center for Biological Diversity, an environmental advocacy group, challenged the state’s approval of well drilling permits to supply millions of gallons of water to Project Jupiter.

The center said the state approved a permit last year after ignoring public-notification procedures in state law. Samantha Barncastle Salopek, a water rights lawyer who comes from a pecan-farming family, said farmers and ranchers are worried about their water rights in a state hammered by drought. She is running as a Republican for a seat on the Doña Ana County commission.

Trump defies political wisdom on data centers Trump continues to stick up for data centers, even as politicians from both parties run from them and many communities try to block them. He said last week that if he were a mayor or a governor with a chance to land a big data center, “I would absolutely want it, because the jobs are enormous and the money paid, the taxes paid, are just enormous.” Trump also acknowledged, however, … this year alone.Here are some takeaways from the shifting politics of data centers.Sprawling into rural AmericaTech giants and developers need huge tracts of land to accommodate mammoth computing warehouses, so they've been exploring deeper into rural America.The push has united conservative ranching and farming communities with left-leaning environmental advocacy groups, who share a combined concern about drought-stricken waterways, pollution in food-growing areas and shrinking farmland.In New Mexico, where Oracle and OpenAI are building Project Jupiter, a $165 billion data center complex planned near the Mexican border, concerns over dwindling water supplies are mounting.There, the Center for Biological Diversity, an environmental advocacy group, challenged the state’s approval of well drilling permits to supply millions of gallons of water to Project Jupiter.