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OpenAI recently hired Jessica Schumer, daughter of Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer, and began referring to its data centers as 'compute campuses.' The moves come as tech companies that spent two years courting the Trump administration now seek to repair relationships with Democrats, who have signaled they want tighter AI oversight after the midterms shifted Washington's balance of power.
In Tuesday's U.S. midterm elections, voters decided on 41 ballot measures related to data centers, approving added restrictions in all but one. The results came alongside Democratic wins for governor and congressional seats, with candidates who campaigned partly on tighter oversight of data centers and Big Tech. TechCrunch's Equity podcast discussed the implications for the tech industry, noting OpenAI's recent efforts to rebrand data centers.
Democrats regained control of both chambers of Congress in this week's midterm elections, with AI and data centers emerging as prominent campaign issues. Across the country, voters rejected more than 40 local ballot measures that would have supported new data center construction, reflecting concerns over the facilities' water and electricity use. Privacy advocacy groups, including the Electronic Privacy Information Center, framed the results as a rebuke of Big Tech's influence despite heavy campaign spending by tech figures like Elon Musk.
A Fast Company newsletter commentary argues that tech companies' efforts to appease President Trump are becoming less central to their political strategy. It suggests that navigating a Democratic Party that now holds more power presents a bigger challenge for the industry going forward.
On the latest Vergecast episode, hosts Nilay Patel and David Pierce discuss how Democratic gains in the 2026 midterms could reignite congressional attention on tech CEOs, AI regulation, and data center buildouts. They also examine whether AI companies, including OpenAI and Google, have found sustainable business models despite AI search growth and reported pullbacks in enterprise spending.
Reps. Greg Casar and Maxine Waters led a group of House Democrats in introducing a resolution warning that an AI-related asset bubble poses economic risks, and stating opposition to any taxpayer bailout of corporations or executives if that bubble collapses. The resolution instead calls for aggressive federal action to protect workers, retirees and low-income communities from resulting economic harm, and was co-sponsored by a dozen other House Democrats.
Court filings in an ongoing lawsuit against Meta have surfaced internal documents, after a judge ruled they were not protected by attorney-client privilege despite the company routing related correspondence through lawyers. The documents reportedly reveal internal plans and research touching on how Meta's products affect young users, adding to litigation alleging the company's products harm minors.
DoorDash is said to be exploring a deal to buy Instacart, according to a brief report. Details on valuation, timing or deal structure were not disclosed in the available information.
Tech critic and podcast host Paris Marx has published a book, 'Hyperscale: The Ambition and Excess of Big Tech's Data Empires,' examining decades of opposition to data center growth worldwide, from Vietnam War-era protests to recent fights in Ireland, Chile and New Zealand. In an interview, Marx traces his interest to 2019 moratoriums in the Netherlands and Singapore, Ireland's 2022 grid strain debates, and Google's effort to conceal its water usage in The Dalles, Oregon, where the company was later found to consume 29 percent of the town's water.
In his book 'Hyperscale: The Ambition and Excess of Big Tech's Data Empires,' journalist Paris Marx recounts visiting heavily secured data centers in Virginia and Ireland operated by companies including Microsoft. He reports that Amazon, Microsoft and Google together control 59% of hyperscale data center capacity, and that modern AI-driven facilities can require roughly triple the power of older large data centers, around 50 megawatts previously versus much higher now.
A Wall Street Journal risk briefing notes that major technology companies are bringing data centers online ahead of schedule even as artificial intelligence development confronts a significant new obstacle. The same report says U.S. tariff pressure is pushing other countries to strengthen their forced-labor regulations.
Following years of generative AI deployment by major tech firms largely on their own terms, some consumers are now using AI tools to bypass paywalls, restrictions and data-collection practices imposed by those same companies. The trend marks a shift from AI being used primarily by corporations to extract value from users, toward individuals using it to push back.