The future of Meta’s proposed $1 billion data center in Piqua, Ohio, is now under review after U.S. voters overwhelmingly approved local measures to restrict or ban the facilities in the Tuesday midterm elections. Across 10 states, voters passed laandslide margins in favor of moratoria on data center development, with some unofficial tallies showing that such measures passed in 43 of 44 local votes. In jurisdictions like Joliet, Illinois, and Hubbard, Ohio, the pushback saw support for restrictions reach as high as 80%.
The voting results, which occurred in both deep-red and deep-blue counties, have forced a strategy shift for the AI infrastructure boom. Meta President Dina Powell McCormick stated that the results make establishing new domestic sites “harder,” causing the company to prioritize expanding existing facilities and scouting for locations outside the U.S. The scale of the opposition has led firms like Goldman Sachs to warn that the shift in the political wind could put up to 45% of the planned U.S. data center capacity at risk.