A tech hub just slammed the brakes on data centers

A Midwest tech hub that’s also one of America’s bluest cities is moving to rein in the artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure boom, underscoring a growing divide over how fast the U.S. should build out data centers. City council members in Madison (WI) home to the state’s capitol and nearly 300,000 people, voted unanimously to temporarily ban new construction of large data centers for one year. The local action comes as lawmakers nationwide grapple with a fraught issue that has sparked voter backlash across the political spectrum. Temporary data center bans are proliferating, raising the possibility that more cities—and even states—could follow suit. The trend has opened rifts among Democrats in Congress—and runs counter to the Trump administration’s goal of rapidly building AI infrastructure to compete with China.