Stop the AI Data Centers! Bring AI & Big Tech Into Public Control, Make Billionaires Pay!
By Kshama Sawant
Data centers have existed since the World Wide Web took off in the mid-1990s. But in the last five years, absolutely massive “hyperscale” data centers for AI training and inference are being built at an unprecedented scale. There are nearly 4,500 data centers in the United States, some 600-650 of which are hyperscale, accounting for about 54 percent of all such facilities globally.
Standard data centers may have a few thousand servers. These new hyperscale facilities can exceed 5,000 or even hundreds of thousands and can occupy millions of square feet. One data-center campus can demand anywhere from 200 to more than 500 megawatts of electricity—as much as hundreds of thousands of American homes. These hyperscale data centers are already dramatically pushing up electricity bills for working people. Data Centers not only use up insane amounts of electricity, they also distort the flow of electricity to homes, increasing the risk of electrical fires and blackouts. Hyperscale data centers can also consume millions of gallons of water daily, sometimes leaving surrounding residences with dry taps. They cause air pollution, water pollution, and sound pollution, which have huge negative impacts on working people nearby and which come at a time when the climate crisis is already at a breaking point.
No wonder that seven out of ten Americans oppose the data centers and are in massive opposition to the proliferation of AI. Protests by working people have shut down the plans for about 48 of these data centers, equating roughly $68 billion worth of projects. But there are over 670 more hyper scale data centers in the pipeline. And countless more mass layoffs.
Overall, an expected $3 to $7 trillion is expected to be spent just on AI hyperscale data centers in the next five years. The super-rich are determined to ram through the data centers because of the trillions in dollars of profits that are at stake. AI is now a central component of genocide and imperialist war, ICE terror, mass layoffs, the surveillance state, and climate crisis because AI is the new frontier for super-profits for the super-rich.
The capitalist class will do anything they need to in order to keep expanding and profiting from AI. Institutions like the police, the courts, the U.S. Congress, State Legislatures, City Councils will intimidate, threaten, and try to crush the growing movement against data centers. They have begun accusing opponents of AI data centers of “anti-tech extremism” with ensuing arrests and lawsuits against those who dare to fight back.
The ruling class will absolutely not stop the AI and data center juggernaut unless threatened by a powerful nationwide mass movement. A working class leadership with a backbone to go up against billionaires and with a proven strategy to win will be necessary.
Both the Democratic and Republican parties are owned by the billionaire class and neither provides a path forward for working people. My main opponent, 29-year genocidal incumbent Democrat Adam Smith, is the top Democrat being funded by Palantir and Anduril, which profit from war and surveillance AI.
My campaign for US Congress is fighting to end all AI data centers and ban all tax incentives for the super-rich in tech and real estate. I am fighting for a ban on the use of AI in wars. I am calling for a national ban on algorithmic rental price-fixing software. My campaign is the only one calling for Big Tech and Big Energy corporations to be taken into democratic public ownership by workers. This is the only way that technology can be harnessed for the good of working people and all living species, because we cannot control what we do not own.
With the billionaires playing for trillions of dollars of wealth from AI, they are gambling with the lives of billions of working people. Wall Street and the super-rich must pay for the coming economic recession, not working people.
The data center and mass layoff onslaught is not a ‘machines versus humans’ war — it is class war by the wealthy against billions of working and poor people. That’s why ending it will require an organized class war back against the bosses.
Kshama Sawant is a revolutionary socialist and a founding member of Workers Strike Back, who during her 10 years a Seattle City Council member, led the movement to win the nation’s highest minimum wage and the Amazon Tax on wealthy corporations to fund affordable housing. Kshama is now running for the U.S. Congress as an independent antiwar socialist. https://www.kshamasawant.org
Editor’s Note:
Canadian Prime Minister Carney has just announced “Canada’s National Artificial Intelligence Strategy” — allocating 2 billion dollars towards AI infrastructure, including the construction of large-scale data centres. More than 90 facilities are either being proposed or are under construction — in addition to the five that have already been built. The public is already skeptical of this strategy, with many communities across Canada uniting to push back against the rollout of AI data centres in their cities. In the face of large demonstrations, massive petitioning and council delegations, the City of Hamilton, Ontario has voted for a moratorium on data centres to allow for public consultation and a robust environmental assessment.