‘Let Data Reign’: Trump decries opposition to data centres in US

Despite concerns over their electricity and water consumption, US president calls on communities to embrace data centres.Despite bipartisan pushback against data centres in the United States, President Donald Trump has urged communities across the country to embrace the tech facilities, promising that they would bring jobs.Trump said on Monday that China is happy with what he called the “anti-Data Center movement”, suggesting that growing disapproval of the centres in the US would divert businesses to the world’s second largest economy.Recommended Stories list of 3 itemslist 1 of 3Japan’s economy slows, missing growth forecastslist 2 of 3US national debt passes record $40 trillionlist 3 of 3Who are the economic winners and losers of the US-Israel war on Iran?end of list“The only reason that communities throughout the USA should not want Data Centers is if they want to end up being backwards and poor,” Trump wrote in a social media post.“If they want to be successful and rich, with far lower taxes and jobs all over the place, let Data Reign.”As more data centres open across the country, in part to power the growing use of Artificial Intelligence, the facilities have been met with scepticism – by both Republican and Democratic voters.Data centres consume an enormous amount of electricity, raising concerns about the effect on the power grid, including possible outages and increased utility bills.The Trump administration has backed a voluntary pledge by tech companies to entirely cover the price of their energy consumption. But consumer protection advocates have been calling for strict federal regulations around data centres.Beyond electricity, environmental activists are ringing the alarm over the enormous amounts of water needed to cool down servers at data centres at a time when parts of the country are experiencing droughts.