AI data centres championed by Trump are causing anger in the US

[00:00:00] Speaker 1: The data centers are making a fortune. The people in those areas, they're going to greatly benefit financially. [00:00:08] Speaker 2: Is it making us rich or no? Mr. Zuckerberg, can I quickly ask you, can we have a quick word? [00:00:13] Speaker 3: On politics, on economics, on communities, the AI revolution is profound. And this is what it sounds like. The white noise of data centers fueling all of our lives right now and ruining more than a few, too. [00:00:30] Speaker 4: Data centers are going to have, again, pollution, noise. I mean, this is egregious. Do you want to live across from that? [00:00:38] Speaker 3: At the White House, the president is all in. [00:00:43] Speaker 2: Mr. President, tell us why the world should not be concerned about AI. Because we have people that love our country and love the world. [00:00:51] Speaker 3: And the tech leaders, well, they're saying nothing about the centers or the revolution they drive. [00:00:58] Speaker 2: Mr. Zuckerberg, can I quickly ask you, how concerned should the world be about AI? Can you talk to us? Thank you. Mr. Musk, how are you? Mark Stone from Sky News. How are you, sir? Sorry. Can we have a quick word? Thank you. How concerned should people be about AI? [00:01:12] Speaker ?: Thank you. Thank you. [00:01:12] Speaker 2: Thank you. [00:01:14] Speaker 3: It's a short drive from Washington, D.C. to a place with the biggest concentration of data centers in the world. I mean, it's no wonder they call it the tech corridor. This one road, I mean, on both sides, in between the housing estates are data centers, and attached to each of them is an electricity substation. This is Loudoun County, Virginia, the front line of the AI revolution, and the front line of the angst about it all, too. A community uprising, they'd like to think, which is uniting left with right. [00:01:49] Speaker 4: Did you ask President Trump those questions? [00:01:51] Speaker 3: Yes. [00:01:52] Speaker 4: I have to shake your hand. [00:01:54] Speaker 3: I'm with Suzanne and her husband, Vic. Their politics is conservative, but they're not with the president on AI, and here's why. You had no say. [00:02:03] Speaker 4: No. No say whatsoever. I mean, this is egregious. Do you want to live across from that? [00:02:10] Speaker 1: No. No. Commercial, commercial. Industrial, industrial. Residential, residential. And that's where this whole thing became a problem, because there's other ones proposed that are way too [00:02:22] Speaker 3: close to people's houses. For places like this, there is a windfall for accepting these centers. Here in Loudoun County, a tax on data centers is expected to generate over $1 billion in local tax revenue. Yet that messaging doesn't seem to be making any difference. Part of it, maybe, is that the messaging literally can't keep up with the expansion. This is an electricity substation that's just been built. So new, in fact, that if you look on the satellite map here, it's just woodland. [00:02:57] Speaker 5: I built this live monitoring dashboard. [00:02:59] Speaker 3: Casey Hatch is using data to make her point. [00:03:03] Speaker 5: This is in the past two days here. The red line represents what the legal limit is, and the green line is what the noise has actually been recorded as. And there is a complete mix of Republicans and Democrats. There's people who participated in Democrat campaigns. There's people who participated in Republican campaigns, like real activists. And we're just completely united on this. [00:03:25] Speaker 3: Now, then, I want to show you three things which I think bring all this together and show you what's going on. Some maps, some public opinion, and some good old economics. The maps first. This is the Virginia Tech Corridor, just to the northwest of Washington, D.C. This is where we've just been filming. And if we zoom in, you can see here, this is the data center that Casey and I were standing outside. This is what it looks like now. And this is what it looked like just a few years ago. And it's an image replicated across this part of Virginia. Here's another one. I think this is a really striking image before and after. Have a look at that expansion. Absolutely extraordinary. Before and what it looks like now. And this is an aerial picture replicated across this country in different states. This here is Texas before. And look at it now. This, by the way, is pretty much the size of the state of Monaco, if you can believe that. So that's Texas. If we move on to Iowa before, look at the road there. Keep an eye on that road. Now look at what it looks like now. There's the road. And you can see the expansion taking place here. So that's Iowa. And then lastly, another example here, Arizona before and after. And you can see here, these are all the air conditioning units that are keeping these massive facilities cool and running. Polling. Have a look at this. This is a poll from Politico. Do you want a data center near your home? Now look at this first bar here. This is January 2026. 28% of those opposed data centers near their home. But fast forward six months, the bottom bar, and look at it. Look how much it's increased. 41% now oppose data centers near their home. So it's clear that that message from President Trump, don't worry, it's all going to be good for you having a data center near you. That's a message that simply isn't getting through. Now the third bit of data, I want to show you the economics and bear with me because I do think it's interesting. Remember, President Trump has said full steam ahead. And I think this explains why it clearly is full steam ahead and also why he doesn't want to slow down. The railroads, electrification and highways over the past couple of centuries, each of those revolutions took basically two decades to come to pass. AI, have a look at that. Look how narrow that line is. It's taken much less than a decade for the AI revolution to become a more important part of the American economy than all of those different things combined. Absolutely extraordinary.