The Verge’s weekly Stepback newsletter examines the growing wave of community opposition to AI data centers. The piece links today’s local battles to an earlier episode: in 2015, Apple announced plans for a roughly $1 billion data center on a 500-acre site in Athenry, Ireland, intended to power its European services including iTunes, iMessage, and Siri. A small group of protesters at the time is presented as an early example of the resistance now appearing more widely as the AI boom places pressure on local power grids.
Why it matters
The expansion of AI infrastructure has consequences beyond technology, affecting local power supplies and prompting pushback in the communities where facilities are proposed. Framing current disputes against earlier opposition highlights that these tensions predate the recent AI surge.
Who should care
Residents near proposed data center sites, technology companies planning large facilities, and policymakers weighing the local impact of AI infrastructure buildouts.