Data Centers, Data Centers Everywhere — And America Is Done Being Polite
Watch the latest episode of Shimmy Says above. Data center opposition has reached historic highs. In fact, support for building a data center nearby collapsed from 43% to 21% in nine months, and opposition hit 71%. In this extended episode, Alan Shimel argues data center opposition isn’t anti-AI — it’s anti-deal — and travels from a rancher’s property line in Broadview, Montana to Meta’s $200 billion Hyperion in Louisiana, to Boxtown outside Memphis, to a $2.1 billion Fort Worth data center that will create just 37 permanent jobs.
Chapters
- 00:00 — The data center is the new face of AI
- 01:30 — A public opinion revolt in nine months
- 03:00 — Broadview, Montana — one rancher, one gigawatt
- 05:15 — Richland Parish — the lottery ticket with fine print
- 07:45 — Boxtown — Anthropic can leave. Boxtown cannot.
- 10:10 — Fort Worth — $2.1 billion, 37 jobs
- 12:20 — The AI Industrial Complex
- 14:00 — The shadow grid
- 15:30 — The cloud has a street address
- 17:00 — Permission to keep the lights on
For example, skip to any moment in the episode above to hear Alan on the specific flashpoint driving data center opposition in that community.
Why is data center opposition rising so fast?
According to a Heatmap poll, U.S. support for a data center built near where a respondent lives fell from 43% in August 2025 to 21% by spring 2026. However, that roughly 50-point swing in less than a year isn’t primarily about artificial intelligence. Instead, Alan Shimel argues data center opposition is really about the terms of the deal being offered to communities hosting the infrastructure.
Is data center opposition really an anti-AI backlash?
Alan’s framing is direct: this isn’t an anti-AI revolt, it’s an anti-deal revolt. Meanwhile, Americans are looking at billions in capital investment producing a few dozen permanent jobs, ratepayers absorbing new transmission costs, and 90-day exit clauses that let hyperscalers walk while the host community stays behind. Additionally, they are rejecting the bargain, not the technology — and that is what modern data center opposition looks like. Therefore, the backlash keeps growing.
What is the AI Industrial Complex?
Borrowing Eisenhower’s phrasing, Alan describes an aligned set of incentives across hyperscalers, GPU vendors, utilities, construction firms, investors, politicians, and national security officials. Not a conspiracy — rather, a momentum that treats public consent as an afterthought instead of a prerequisite for building the Intelligence Grid.
Why does Boxtown, Memphis matter?
Anthropic has locked in access to hundreds of thousands of GPUs at the Colossus complex outside Memphis. Similarly, Google has contracted for a large block of compute at the same site. Both agreements reportedly allow the tenants to walk with 90 days’ notice. As a result, the line from the episode stands out: Anthropic can leave. Google can leave. Boxtown cannot leave.
Referenced Techstrong reporting
- America Wants the Intelligence Grid. Just Not Next Door.
- The AI Tenants Can Leave. Boxtown Cannot.
- $2.1 Billion, 37 Jobs — The New Math of the AI Economy
- The AI Industrial Complex
More from Shimmy Says: watch the full series.
