What is a data centre?
A data centre is a big, highly secure building full of computers and the other physical infrastructure that the digital world is built on. They've been around for decades (since the 1940s, reckons IBM, in the form of “server rooms”), but the internet, cloud computing and now the widespread adoption of AI have all radically increased the need for giant – and now “hyperscale” – centres. Nowadays, much of what we do online every day – from Google searches to banking to streaming Netflix – depends on computing power and connectivity housed in data centres. There's no single authoritative figure for the number of such centres in the world, because there's no universally accepted definition of how big an installation has to be to count as one. But in terms of large data centres, commercially operated by companies such as cloud providers, there are around 11,000–12,000 worldwide, with the majority in the US.
What's inside a data centre?
A typical data centre will contain servers (powerful computers that process, store and distribute data); networking equipment (to connect the servers to the internet); sophisticated cooling systems (otherwise computers get very hot, and then stop working); and power infrastructure (such as substations, back-up generators and batteries). In recent decades, data centres have got much bigger, with so-called “hyperscalers” – the likes of Microsoft, Google and Meta – building vast campuses covering many acres. A data centre with 150 racks holding 25 servers each equates to 3,750 servers; but that's no longer considered large. According to the International Data Corporation, a true “hyperscale data centre” is one that contains at least 5,000 servers and occupies at least 10,000 square feet of physical space and uses more than 100MW of energy. And many are now vastly larger than that. A hyperscale data centre can hold thousands of racks and hundreds of thousands of servers – all built on vast sites covering hundreds of acres.
Why are data centres controversial?
Much media coverage of the backlash (or “techlash”) against data centres focuses on distrust of Big Tech and AI, and fear of job losses. More than half of Americans say they're more concerned than excited about the growing use of AI in daily life, according to a recent report from the Pew Research Centre. But the dominant sources of opposition are more mundane, says The Economist. Polls suggest that what worries people about the centres is their perceived local impact. In a recent Fox News poll, 75% of respondents cited concerns such as energy use, utility and water bills, construction disruption and traffic as the main reason they opposed a data centre in their area. Just 11% pointed to AI itself.
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The politics around building data centres
More than 500 US counties and municipalities have passed data-centre bans or moratoriums, while dozens of proposed projects have been abandoned. Research group Data Centre Watch calculates that grassroots groups blocked or delayed at least 75 data centre projects worth about $130 billion in the first three months of 2026 alone. That's close to the $156 billion worth of facilities that were disrupted during all of 2025. What's striking, too, is how swiftly politicians have shifted their position. The Republican governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, once touted the state as the “epicentre of AI development” – it boasts the most of any state except Virginia. Last week, though, now up for re-election, he said data centres had “dug their own grave” by overreaching. Across the US, the issue has emerged as a surprise key battleground in the US midterm elections, with some unexpected opponents (Republicans) and supporters (union-backed Democrats) of development. With typical grace and tact, president Donald Trump opined that: “The only reason that communities throughout the USA should not want data centres is if they want to end up being backwards and poor. If they want to be successful and rich, with far lower taxes and jobs all over the place, let data reign.” China is delighted with the US backlash, he claimed. “If we kill the golden goose, you will only have yourselves to blame.”
Is Donald Trump right about data centres?
Perhaps. “Voters and politicians alike are making a big mistake” in blocking data-centre growth, says The Economist. One common myth is that data centres guzzle endless water. In fact, a mid-sized centre uses about as much as two golf courses and much less if it recycles its water, as many now do. Concerns over energy use are more credible, but there's little evidence that they raise energy prices for households; rather, by increasing demand they spread the fixed costs of infrastructure among more kilowatt-hours sold. And in any event, the “answer to competing demands on resources – whether water, electricity or something else – is to price them according to their scarcity, thereby encouraging more provision and higher living standards over time. It is not to ration inputs according to the arbitrary judgment of scolds.”
What about here in the UK?
Britain has a claim to being the home of the first data centre – in the large shed at Bletchley Park where wartime cryptographers built Colossus, the world's first programmable electronic computer. Today, the UK has 450 “large data centres”, according to government figures, with more than half of them in or close to London. In September 2024, the government designated data centres as critical national infrastructure and in January 2025 announced five “AI Growth Zones”, with £28.2 billion of planned investment. Our biggest data centre to date, says James Price on CapX, is a 148MW site outside Cardiff, but progress is slowing, with the likes of the UAE and Japan now steaming ahead. This, of course, is hardly a surprise. “In Britain, we can force £100 million to be spent on a bat tunnel; imagine what our planning system will do with a gigawatt campus.”
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