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1-0 to humankind? US midterms vote puts AI, datacentres and the broligarchy back in their box | Heather Stewart

Last week’s midterms may not have cowed Donald Trump, but they should be a wake-up call for the grinning tech broligarchs who lined up at his inauguration two chaotic years ago. Clearly, the cost of living squeeze unleashed by Trump’s war in Iran was a big driver of the Democrat wave. But AI was also on the ballot – in many places, literally. Dozens of measures calling for limits on datacentre expansion were passed. And elsewhere, reining in the unchecked expansion of the power-hungry mega-sheds was a rallying c…

Truvace record2 min read1 sourceEvidence: Emerging · 30/100 — Commentary, opinion, or narrative review · 1 independent sourceJournalismTRV-2026-2431 · cite or check it
1-0 to humankind? US midterms vote puts AI, datacentres and the broligarchy back in their box | Heather Stewart
"meeting pan" by AMagill, CC BY 2.0.

In brief

A Guardian opinion column by Heather Stewart argues that last week's US midterms delivered a public rebuke to AI expansion. Dozens of ballot measures calling for limits on datacentre expansion passed, and curbing the power-hungry facilities was a rallying cry in many races.

The column says the backlash has dented the story that sustained the AI market boom: that debt-funded datacentres would carpet the US as demand rose. It quotes Joe Maher of Capital Economics saying the midterms could become the catalyst for a lasting unwind of the AI equity boom.

The piece notes the sell-off was already building. The Nasdaq peaked a month earlier, and the IMF pointed to growing evidence that AI may not need investment on the scale hyperscalers are spending. Whether the market falls further remains unclear.

Main points

  1. Dozens of measures calling for limits on datacentre expansion were passed in the midterms, according to the column.
  2. Texas senator-elect James Talarico recalled a mother who said lights from a neighbouring datacentre were so bright her son thought it was daytime at night.
  3. Capital Economics' Joe Maher said the midterms could plausibly become the catalyst for a more long-lasting unwind of the AI equity boom.
  4. TS Lombard economist Dario Perkins described the industry as about $200bn in current revenues supporting more than $1tn in future commitments from two companies, Anthropic and OpenAI.
  5. The IMF said last month that AI's rollout may not require massive hyperscaler investment and that potential economic gains may not be as large as expected.
  6. Reports cited in the column say some corporate AI users are capping staff use of costly products such as Anthropic's Claude or moving to cheaper models hosted on their own servers.

The problem

A Guardian column says voters passed dozens of ballot measures limiting datacentre expansion in the US midterms, which it expects to slow AI infrastructure building and strain AI-inflated market valuations.

The full story

The column ties the vote to local frustrations as well as national ones. It credits the cost-of-living squeeze as a big driver of the Democratic wave but says AI was also on the ballot, with datacentre limits passing and local anger over the facilities' impact on neighbours.

It argues the backlash hits a weak point in the AI investment story. The industry's pitch, in its telling, was that datacentres would become necessary and viable as demand grew, while workers were warned they might be replaced by bots. The columnist says that combination is poor public relations, alongside complaints about online slop, smart glasses and AI forced into apps.

On the market side, the column cites the Nasdaq peak a month earlier, Capital Economics' view that sentiment towards AI was already fragile, and the IMF's mention of cheaper Chinese models and circular financing within the sector. It also says Elon Musk's heavy spending in Texas became a selling point for Democrats.

Sources

  1. JournalismThe Guardian2026-11-08

The debate