BlackRock CEO Larry Fink told CNBC that a data center moratorium would put the U.S. in a recession. Moody's puts this year's capex at $700 billion, and Fink separately warned that the national debt has reached $40 trillion.
Perspective Coverage
8 publishers
- Builder
- Builder 13%
- Operator
- Operator 38%
- Investor
- Investor 49%
Reality
- Evidence40
- Adoption
- Not scored
- Hype gap+30
- Incentives70
- Confidence68
Both parties are campaigning against data centers in the toss-up races that could decide Congress
At least 20 governor candidates have promised data center moratoriums, according to Multistate research cited by Wired. For teams counting on capacity that has not been built yet, where a site goes and who pays for its power are now campaign questions in several states.
Reality
- Evidence55
- Adoption15
- Hype gap+25
- Incentives60
- Confidence50
Treetop's 1,000MW grid filing set off East Fishkill's three-year data-centre ban
East Fishkill, New York, unanimously barred data centres over 20MW until July 2029, though no developer had applied to build one. The plan surfaced in a filing with New York's grid operator, so opposition reached the town board before any application did.
Reality
- Evidence55
- Adoption
- Not scored
- Hype gap+15
- Incentives60
- Confidence62
Blackstone's data center REIT loses 16% from its IPO price before buying its first building
Blackstone's Digital Infrastructure Trust trades about 16% below its $20 May IPO price, CNBC reported. The REIT has yet to invest its proceeds, so the loss so far reflects interest rates and the market's view of Blackstone's buying plan, before any moratorium or tenant has touched an asset it owns.
Reality
- Evidence58
- Adoption30
- Hype gap+40
- Incentives78
- Confidence55
OpenAI president Greg Brockman has stopped at $25 million of the $50 million he and his wife pledged to the Leading the Future super PAC. The stop followed objections from his own staff, while industry money keeps reaching the midterms through ads that mostly leave AI out.
Perspective Coverage
4 publishers
- Builder
- Builder 15%
- Operator
- Operator 51%
- Investor
- Investor 34%
Reality
- Evidence72
- Adoption
- Not scored
- Hype gap+18
- Incentives66
- Confidence70
Data center moratoriums are moving from counties to statehouses
New York, New Hampshire, Connecticut and Oregon moved to pause or refuse new data centers between July and September, consultant Arif Gasilov said. For companies whose AI plans assume new capacity, permission to build now depends on state politics.
Reality
- Evidence35
- Adoption
- Not scored
- Hype gap+25
- Incentives
- Not scored
- Confidence35
Sanders stakes a data center construction pause on the future of humanity
Wired reports a split on the American left over whether frontier-lab extinction talk distracts from harms already happening. The one bill in that account pairs an existential justification with a permitting instrument.
Reality
- Evidence58
- Adoption
- Not scored
- Hype gap+25
- Incentives72
- Confidence52
New York holds the only statewide data centre pause a site plan must obey today
No state bans data centres, and New York's freeze, triggered at 1 MW of peak demand, is the only statewide one in force. Of the 15 states with named moratorium bills, six are already dead and two of the live ones end on someone else's timetable.
Reality
- Evidence52
- Adoption12
- Hype gap+25
- Incentives25
- Confidence45
Philadelphia's moratorium campaign beat the first data center proposal to City Hall
Philadelphia has named two candidate data center sites, one of them in the Grays Ferry neighborhood that lived next to the East Coast's largest oil refinery, and residents there are already at City Hall asking for a moratorium.
Reality
- Evidence52
- Adoption46
- Hype gap+18
- Incentives62
- Confidence50
Morgan Stanley puts the last groundbreaking for 2027 data-center capacity in October
Build times of two to three years make an October start the last one that can open before 2028, and JPMorgan already counts more than 60 percent of planned 2027 capacity as unbuilt. The scarce input is a permitted site with power.
Reality
- Evidence28
- Adoption
- Not scored
- Hype gap+30
- Incentives55
- Confidence34