- The US government is using ’eminent domain’ to force property owners to sell properties to make way for new data center infrastructure.
- Power companies are turning to the government as a last resort to acquire land needed for power transmission projects.
- Americans are unhappy with massive construction of new AI data centers
It’s no secret that there is a huge divide between AI companies looking to expand their capabilities and the general public who don’t want a data center built in their backyard, particularly in the United States.
Recent polls have raised that figure to 7 in 10 Americans who oppose building data centers, citing environmental concerns and reductions in quality of life as the main reasons.
But both AI and energy companies are reportedly turning to “eminent domain” — the government’s ability to seize owners’ private property without needing the owner’s consent.
The government confiscates private property
Eminent domain has typically been reserved for critical infrastructure projects, including energy and transportation, along with government projects and public services.
Eminent domain was also used to seize land for the construction of the Minuteman nuclear missile deterrent system throughout the United States during the Cold War.
Drawing on a similar patriotic tone expressed during the construction of silos in the 1960s, President Donald Trump has said that the development of artificial intelligence technologies is crucial to the national security and economic security of the United States and therefore the capability must be expanded.
Because data centers require enormous amounts of electricity to operate, they require dedicated power lines and infrastructure connections. To build this infrastructure, power companies approach local landowners and offer to purchase the land on which the power lines will be built. However, if homeowners say no, power companies can ask the government to use its eminent domain power.
The Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution requires the government to provide the owner with “just compensation,” generally based on the fair market value of similar properties in the local area.
Data centers accounted for approximately 10% to 20% of US electricity consumption in 2024, and that number has increased significantly since then. Some data centers under construction will use more energy than some American cities, such as Meta’s Hyperion campus in Louisiana, which is expected to consume three times the energy consumed by the city of New Orleans.
Some states have been more prolific in their use of eminent domain, and Georgia residents have been forced to sell property to Georgia Power’s transmission project, a capacity expansion that will primarily benefit data centers. Other landowners in Maryland have begun posting signs on their properties that say, “No eminent domain for corporate profits.”
Opposition to data centers is quickly becoming an issue of people versus government, with many complaining that AI companies are becoming extremely rich without providing any benefits to the average American working class, something that Senator Bernie Sanders hopes to remedy with an AI sovereign wealth fund that would force AI companies to offer up to 50% of their shares to fund projects that benefit Americans.
Through Fortune
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