12,250 Data Centres Now Exist Worldwide, Fueling Backlash

In the United States, opposition to new data centres has become a campaign issue fewer than two weeks before the Nov. 3 midterm elections, as the worldwide count of these facilities has climbed to about 12,250, up from roughly 8,000 operational sites in 2021, according to Data Center Map, a tracking firm cited by the BBC. President Donald Trump has dismissed the growing public pushback as a "sick conspiracy," the BBC reported, even as anger over the facilities spreads in both parties.

How many data centres exist worldwide, and where are they concentrated?

The United States hosts 4,767 of the roughly 12,250 sites tracked globally, making it the most densely clustered market, the BBC reported. Europe follows, led by the United Kingdom and Germany. When measured by computing capacity rather than site count, the US lead widens further, with China in second place and Europe trailing by a larger margin, according to the outlet. That gap is expected to grow, the BBC said, a trend some analysts cited in the report warn could leave Europe missing out on the economic benefits of the broader AI boom.

By the numbers:

• 12,250 data centres operating or under construction globally, up from about 8,000 in 2021
• 4,767 of those sites are located in the United States, the largest national cluster

Why has the issue surfaced in the US midterm campaign?

Data centre expansion has drawn opposition from both Republicans and Democrats ahead of the Nov. 3 vote, the BBC reported, putting critics on a collision course with the Trump administration. Trump has pushed back directly, calling the backlash a "sick conspiracy," according to the BBC, a characterization that has not quieted local anger over noise, land use and utility costs tied to new construction.

How large are the newest data centre campuses becoming?

Size has become central to the dispute. The world's largest operational data centre is widely reported to be a China Telecom facility in Hohhot, Inner Mongolia, covering roughly one million square metres, or about 10.7 million square feet, the BBC reported — an area it compared to roughly 140 FIFA football pitches. But far larger sites are now under construction, the outlet said. Among them is Colossus 2, part of a wider campus that will house hundreds of thousands of Nvidia chips and will be used to train the Grok chatbot built by Elon Musk's xAI, according to the BBC.

What are the environmental and energy concerns driving opposition?

Musk's company plans to power the Colossus 2 site with 41 methane gas turbines, the BBC reported. Activists quoted in the report said the turbines could "significantly increase" local air pollution, while local regulators maintain the turbines will meet existing air quality standards — a direct conflict the BBC noted without resolving. The outlet also reported that data centres collectively now consume more electricity than France, and that their cooling systems draw heavily on local water supplies, raising fears of shortages in some communities.

What happens next for data centre opponents and the industry?

No single policy fight is set to resolve the dispute before the midterms. Instead, the BBC's reporting points to a pattern repeating in town after town: rapid construction driven by AI demand, followed by local objections over power draw, water use and emissions, met by federal dismissal of the complaints as overblown. With bipartisan opposition building in Washington and larger campuses such as Colossus 2 still under construction in Texas, the tension between AI infrastructure growth and local resource strain shows no sign of easing soon.

For readers tracking the broader AI buildout, the UK government's own recent commitment to new AI biosecurity infrastructure illustrates how governments on both sides of the Atlantic are now weighing the costs and benefits of the same computing boom driving the data centre expansion at the center of the US midterm fight.