How Big Tech Is Using Dark Money to Fuel an Unregulated Data Center Boom

We’re just beginning to understand the human cost of data center expansion.

The dire need to get big money out of politics is visible everywhere. Look no further than the rapid expansion of data centers. Just a few years ago, for most of us, these data centers were an obscure part of the infrastructure of the internet. Today, tech companies have built data centers in so many places that Americans are already feeling their negative effects firsthand – and that’s likely only just begun.

As major tech companies and investors pour billions of dollars into competing in the artificial intelligence arms race – without a plan for potential large-scale economic fallout for the rest of us – their business model relies on running more computers in more warehouse-like data centers. Like so many other stories, this is also money in politics story, because there’s a straight line between the $1.9 billion of dark money spent on the 2024 election, the expanding network of pro-AI super PACs, the enormous sums tech firms are spending on lobbying, and how quickly data centers are popping up across the country.

There are now over 4,200 data centers across the United States, many of them in Texas, California, and Virginia. The myriad problems associated with the rapid, largely unregulated proliferation of data centers are mind-bending: Data centers are increasing Americans’ household utility bills at a moment when life is ever-more expensive. They’re siphoning tremendous amounts of energy (mostly powered by gas, nuclear energy, and coal for the foreseeable future) when the climate crisis necessitates lower emissions. And, in the meantime, they’re jeopardizing the stability of our energy grids and polluting our water, including with chemicals associated with cancer and miscarriages.

The human cost of these data centers operating largely without basic environmental regulation is wrenching – and just beginning to be fully reported. In Mississippi, Elon Musk’s company xAI operates Colossus, the world’s largest artificial intelligence supercomputer. According to reporting by The Times, when Colossus full construction is completed, it will require “about 40 percent of the energy consumption of Memphis on an average summer’s day,” as well one million gallons of water, but local authorities waived planning regulations to give the plan the green light. Local residents, many of whom are Black and low-income, told The Times that Colossus has been spewing so much air pollution that there’s a pervasive chemical smell and they’re constantly coughing: “We have to put our lungs up in exchange for profit. It’s just not fair, it’s not morally right.”

Who profits from the enormous supercomputers that spew dirty air and water? A small group of big companies and their shareholders and ultra-wealthy owners. With their gains, those already rich and powerful companies and individuals further consolidate their wealth, which post-Citizens United, means they’re also amassing even more political power, because they can spend ever more on lobbying and elections to try to get whatever they want. And what tech titans ostensibly want right now is to keep being able to expand AI unencumbered by regulations and guidelines.

The cozy tech-oligarch relationships that are enabling all of this are not abstract or particularly well-hidden. On multiple occasions, President Trump has hosted major tech executives at the White House, where they have announced their ambitious new AI and data center projects. The New Yorker reported that at one such event Mark Zuckerberg announced that Meta would spend $600 billion on data centers. On a live mic, Zuckerberg then leaned toward Trump, apologized for being caught off guard, and said, “I wasn’t sure what number you wanted me to go with.”

Major tech companies have also spent huge sums on lobbying and campaigns in support of their rapid data center expansion – and they’re gearing up to spend even more. According to Open Secrets, in 2025 alone, the four largest cloud providers (Amazon, Microsoft, Google, and Meta) spent tens of millions of dollars on federal lobbying. Meanwhile, the electrical manufacturing and equipment industry, another sector that profits from data center expansion, has spent more than $226 million on lobbying this year. The Data Center Coalition, a trade association that includes major tech firms like Google and Meta, has dramatically increased its number of lobbyists and its spending within just the last year. Consider the scale of this increase: According to Open Secrets, the trade association spent $123,000 in the first quarter, $125,000 in the second quarter, and $360,000 in the third quarter. That’s a massive increase in a short span of time, and it’s reasonable to expect that these industry lobbies are just getting started.

Over the last year, tech companies and associations have also launched new super PACs that aim to install lawmakers that will be friendly to AI. Meta, for example, has started at least two super PACs that will focus on electing state-level candidates. That’s strategic, because environmental, consumer, and privacy advocates have looked to the states as venues where they can push legislation while Republicans in Congress and the Trump Administration block any chance of federal efforts. This year, Goldman Sachs projected that as tech firms continue to push their AI platforms, global demand for data centers will increase by 50% between now and 2027 and will have increased by as much as 165% between 2023 and 2030. So, the more super PACs push pro-AI candidates, the higher the likelihood we’re going to end up with more massive supercomputers spewing pollutants.

Tech companies are not the only major industry players that stand to profit enormously. According to The New Yorker, “American utilities sought almost thirty billion dollars in retail rate increases in the first half of 2025.” Bloomberg produced a major report on utility increases and found: “Wholesale electricity costs as much as 267% more than it did five years ago in areas near consumers. That’s being passed on to customers.” So, in the plainest terms, we’re basically absorbing AI companies’ business costs as well as their pollution. And they’re launching new super PACs to make sure they can keep profiting by the billions.