Data center backlash!

2025-12-01

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AI data centers are driving up the cost of energy — and it's starting to get political. This episode was produced by Avishay Artsy and Miles Bryan, edited by Jolie Myers, fact-checked by Laura Bullard and Hady Mawajdeh, engineered by Patrick Boyd and David Tatasciore, and hosted by Noel King. This show was supported by a grant from Arnold Ventures. Vox had full discretion over the content of this reporting. The Google Midlothian Data Center in Texas, one of three new data centers in which Google p...

AI data centers are driving up the cost of energy — and it's starting to get political.

This episode was produced by Avishay Artsy and Miles Bryan, edited by Jolie Myers, fact-checked by Laura Bullard and Hady Mawajdeh, engineered by Patrick Boyd and David Tatasciore, and hosted by Noel King. This show was supported by a grant from Arnold Ventures. Vox had full discretion over the content of this reporting.

The Google Midlothian Data Center in Texas, one of three new data centers in which Google plans to invest $40 billion. Photo by Ron Jenkins/Getty Images.

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