Local opposition blocked or delayed 45 large-scale US data centre projects worth approximately $68 billion from April through June 2026, according to Data Center Watch, an indication of how quickly the industry’s building plans are running into local politics. The projects accounted for more than half of all new large-scale developments tracked in that period, though the available figures do not show how many were cancelled and how many remain on hold.
The disputes sit at the meeting point of artificial intelligence infrastructure, land use and local resources. Communities across the country have been adopting moratoriums on new construction, temporary legal pauses that can last from a few months to a year. Opposition has focused on water use, electricity demand and the effect of development on land, while investors and operators face a growing patchwork of local and state rules.
Data Center Watch said grassroots opposition movements are active in every state except Hawaii. As of September 2026, more than 300 local data center moratoriums and bans had been adopted nationwide by counties, municipalities, townships and other local governments. Approximately 30 statehouses have introduced or adopted rules on data centre siting, electricity and water.
The second-quarter figures follow an earlier burst of resistance. In the first quarter of 2026, approximately 75 developments valued at around $130 billion faced community pushback. From January 2024 to May 2026, 46 AI data center projects across 20 states, representing investments between $137 billion and $172 billion, were stalled, blocked or withdrawn entirely.
A separate estimate by Data Center Watch and Carbon Direct found that at least 48 data center projects worth approximately $156 billion had been blocked or stalled because of local opposition. Project cancellations rose from 6 in 2024 to 25 in 2025, with more than 20 additional cancellations logged in early 2026.
Those investment figures are substantial, though estimates of capacity directly held up by restrictions are more limited. Roughly 2.3 GW of planned data centre capacity is estimated to be genuinely delayed because of local moratoriums and New York's executive order. As of September 2026, roughly 20 GW sat inside a restricted boundary, yet only 1,525 MW was delayed, representing 7.6% of that capacity.
New York's moratorium touches roughly 1.4 GW. An estimated 0.8 GW faces a meaningful delay directly attributable to the order. Three projects account for the delayed megawatts: an AWS campus in Ohio, a powered land developer campus in Pennsylvania, and a site in Colorado.
The contrast between the investment totals and capacity estimates reflects different ways of measuring the disruption. Local opposition has reached almost the whole country, while the available data suggest that many projects inside restricted areas have yet to incur a direct capacity delay. The figures leave unresolved the prospects for the 45 projects recorded in the second quarter, including whether they will resume, remain delayed or be abandoned.
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