00:00In Wisconsin, neighbors of what Microsoft calls the world's most powerful AI data center say a
00:06constant hum has driven them inside their own homes, and now they're taking the company to
00:13federal court. It's the sharpest edge yet of a backlash that just put protesters on the streets
00:19in 42 states, while regulators, city councils, and even Wall Street are starting to push back.
00:28We begin in Mount Pleasant, Wisconsin, where Microsoft's $7.3 billion Fairwater campus,
00:36a facility the company has called the world's most powerful AI data center,
00:42is now the target of a federal class action lawsuit. Residents near the 315-acre site say
00:49that ever since it came online in April, a constant low-frequency hum from diesel generators,
00:55chillers, cooling towers, and condenser fans has pushed them indoors, disturbed their sleep,
01:03and made their backyards unusable. The suit, filed in the Eastern District of Wisconsin,
01:10covers everyone living within a mile and a half of the campus, roughly a thousand people,
01:16and alleges the kind of noise that standard decibel meters barely register.
01:21Along with extreme light pollution, plaintiffs want damages, attorney's fees, and a court order
01:29to stop the sound. Microsoft has blamed cooling fans running at high speed during startup,
01:35an explanation neighbors say they've been hearing for months.
01:40That courtroom fight is one front in a much larger revolt. And this weekend, the revolt hit the
01:47streets. Opponents of the data center build outstaged 142 protests across 42 states.
01:55The first coordinated national mobilization against AI infrastructure in American history.
02:02Texas, the nation's data center hotspot, hosted 18 events. Georgia had 11, California 8,
02:10with Pennsylvania, Florida, and Indiana close behind. The demonstrations were coordinated by Humans First,
02:19a group co-founded by a former Tea Party leader who compares this movement to the populist wave of
02:252009. In Botetot County, Virginia, dozens of residents lined Route 220 to oppose a planned Google data center.
02:35With organizer Catherine Haddam insisting this is not a fringe crowd and not simple nimbyism.
02:42The polling backs her up. Just 14% of Americans say they would welcome a data center in their own
02:49community.
02:51If you want to understand what's fueling that anger, look at Van Buren Township, Michigan.
02:58Officials there granted Google roughly $125 million in property tax breaks over 12 years for a data center known as
03:08Project Cannoli. Planned near Detroit Metro Airport, the facility is expected to draw more electricity than
03:16750,000 homes. An enormous claim on the regional grid in exchange for a relatively small number of permanent jobs.
03:25The response from some residents wasn't a petition or a lawsuit. It was a campaign to recall the entire
03:32township board. Recall organizers argue the board traded away the township's tax base and grid capacity
03:39behind closed doors. While big tech lobbying money shaped the deal. Whether or not the recall succeeds.
03:48The message to local officials everywhere is chilling. Approve a data center deal your voters don't like.
03:55And your job may be on the line. But not every government is rolling out the red carpet.
04:02Some are holding the line. In Wisconsin, the Public Service Commission has refused to reopen its data
04:09center tariff case. Leaving in place some of the strictest financial rules in the country. Under the
04:16tariff approved in April, any data center customer rated below a minus must post collateral. Cash.
04:23A letter of credit. Or a guarantee. Before taking service from WeEnergies. Vantage data centers.
04:32Cloverleaf Infrastructure. And WEC Energy Group petitioned to loosen the rules.
04:38Warning they could cost a company like Oracle more than $100 million a year in fees.
04:44And scare off the investors funding Wisconsin's data center boom.
04:49The commission simply declined to take the petition up. Letting it die by operation of law. It's a quiet
04:56procedural move with a loud message. In Wisconsin, ratepayers come before hyperscalers. No matter how big
05:04the name on the application. That demand for transparency is spreading west. Because in San Jose, activists say
05:13Google may be building a data center without calling it one. Blueprints for a planned Google campus reveal a
05:21250 megawatt substation and banks of cooling towers. Infrastructure that advocates say looks exactly like
05:29a hyperscale data center. All behind a label that simply reads research and development. The distinction
05:36matters. An R&D designation can allow the project to sidestep the extra scrutiny.
05:43Disclosure. And community review that data centers increasingly face in California and across the country.
05:51Google insists the site will be used for internal chip engineering.
05:55Not cloud or AI services. But watchdogs reviewing the filings keep asking a simple question.
06:02If it has the power draw of a data center. And the cooling plant of a data center. Why doesn't
06:09the
06:09paperwork say data center? In an era of eroding trust. Even a label can become a battleground.
06:17That fear of the unknown is exactly why some cities aren't waiting for a proposal to land.
06:23In Oshkosh, Wisconsin, the Common Council has directed staff to draft a formal data center moratorium.
06:31Even though no project has been proposed anywhere in the city. The driving concern is water.
06:38Residents on Lake Winnebago worry about what a hyperscale campus could mean for the local supply.
06:44And a citizen petition against data centers has gathered more than 1,500 signatures.
06:51Neighboring OMRO is pushing back as well. Making the region the latest place where communities are
06:57drawing the line in advance rather than in reaction. City leaders say the pause will give them time to
07:04write rules on water use. Noise. And zoning before a developer ever knocks on the door.
07:11Because by the time one does. They argue. The leverage is already gone.
07:17Preemptive moratoriums like this were almost unheard of a year ago.
07:21Now they're becoming standard practice. Yet while communities pump the brakes.
07:29Wall Street keeps writing checks. Though this week, with noticeable hesitation,
07:35co-location provider C-Square went public on the New York Stock Exchange. Raising 1.05 billion
07:42dollars in one of the biggest pureplay data center IPOs in years.
07:47But the debut was anything but triumphant. Shares priced at 21 dollars.
07:54Below the marketed range of 23 to 27. Valuing the Brookfield-backed company at about 3.25 billion
08:01dollars. The stock then closed its first week at 20 dollars and 67 cents. Under its own offer price,
08:10C-Square runs 64 data centers across 21 markets. Focused on retail co-location rather than the
08:18hyperscale AI build-out. And it lost about 151 million dollars over the past year on roughly a
08:26billion in revenue. The lesson from the trading floor. Investors are learning to tell the difference
08:33between the AI gold rush and the rest of the data center industry. But if the IPO market was lukewarm,
08:42the leasing market is on fire. Which brings us to our kicker. Clean Spark, until recently known as a
08:50Bitcoin mining company, has signed a 20-year lease worth 6.6 billion dollars with an unnamed,
08:56high-investment-grade global technology company at its campus in Sandersville, Georgia. The deal
09:04covers 175 megawatts of IT capacity. With deliveries beginning in late 2027. And it could be worth up to
09:1311.6 billion if the tenant exercises its extension options. The mystery tenant also locked up exclusivity
09:22on CleanSpark's entire Texas portfolio. Up to 885 megawatts of future capacity. CleanSpark's stock
09:31jumped about 10% on the news. And CEO Matt Schultz called the deal the completion of the company's
09:37evolution from crypto miner to diversified digital infrastructure platform. In this market,
09:45the ultimate currency isn't Bitcoin. It's land and power.
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