OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has acknowledged that public sentiment toward artificial intelligence and the data centers powering the technology has deteriorated, as growing opposition threatens to complicate the industry’s rapid expansion across the United States.
“Clearly, people hate data centers right now, at least,” Altman told Time in interviews for a cover story published Wednesday. “People are pretty negative on AI.”
Altman’s comments offer a candid assessment of a problem that has become increasingly difficult for AI companies to ignore. The industry is investing hundreds of billions of dollars in computing infrastructure. Still, data centers are facing opposition from communities concerned about electricity demand, water consumption, land use, noise, and the potential impact on utility costs.
The backlash has significantly impacted OpenAI and its technology partners because the development of capable AI models requires enormous amounts of computing power. The company is pursuing a large-scale expansion of data-center capacity, making access to electricity and infrastructure a strategic constraint alongside chips and capital.
Altman has previously acknowledged the tension surrounding new facilities. During an interview last month, he compared opposition to data centers to concerns about living near a nuclear power plant.
“I understand emotionally why people don’t want data centers in their backyard in the same way that I don’t really want a nuclear power plant next to my house, even though I know it’s a super safe thing,” he said.
He was even more direct in March, telling an audience at BlackRock’s U.S. Infrastructure Summit in Washington that “AI is not very popular in the US right now.”
The political response is becoming more consequential. Governors in Pennsylvania and Texas have recently sought to restrict or slow future data-center development, even after previously promoting the facilities as drivers of investment and economic growth.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, once described the state as the “epicenter of AI development.” More recently, he said that data-center operators had contributed to the backlash by failing to adequately engage with state and local authorities.
“They pop up in places that nobody ever heard of before, until they started the construction,” Abbott said Sunday on ABC’s “This Week.” “And so, they had not been working in collaboration with the state, they’d not been in collaboration with local governments, and so they basically dug their own grave for the problem that’s been caused for them and that’s why they got the backlash they deserve.”
The political shift matters because AI infrastructure depends on favorable local permitting, access to large quantities of electricity, and cooperation from utilities and communities. Resistance could increase the time and cost required to build new facilities, potentially slowing the expansion of computing capacity.
OpenAI and other companies have begun responding to some of the concerns. OpenAI has highlighted efforts to address water and power consumption and has announced community initiatives around some of its data-center projects, including Codex credits for eligible students in Ohio, Georgia and Michigan.
But the criticism has expanded beyond environmental and infrastructure concerns into a broader debate about who benefits from the AI boom.
Chamath Palihapitiya, co-host of the “All-In Podcast,” described the situation as a “powder keg” and warned that resistance could intensify. He said that data centers had become a symbol of the perceived concentration of AI’s economic gains among a relatively small group of technology companies and investors.
That perception could become a major issue as AI companies seek public and government support for massive infrastructure investments. The industry has promoted data centers as sources of construction activity, jobs, tax revenue, and technological competitiveness. Local communities, however, are now focused on the immediate costs, particularly pressure on power grids and questions over whether the economic benefits justify those costs.
The backlash has even entered popular culture. Super Bowl champion Jason Kelce appeared in an advertisement for Garage Beer and Liquid Death that mocked data centers by encouraging people to send their urine to them, a reference to concerns over the water required to operate and cool large computing facilities.
Altman has also faced a more personal manifestation of the hostility surrounding the AI industry. In April, an attacker threw a Molotov cocktail at his San Francisco mansion and later threatened to burn down OpenAI before being arrested.
After the attack, Altman said much of the criticism directed at the industry came from legitimate concerns about the consequences of increasingly powerful technology.
“A lot of the criticism of our industry comes from sincere concern about the incredibly high stakes of this technology,” he wrote on his personal blog.
The criticism now presents a strategic problem for the industry. AI companies need to persuade governments and communities to approve unprecedented amounts of infrastructure while demonstrating that the economic benefits will be broadly distributed and that the costs to electricity systems, water resources and local communities can be managed.
President Donald Trump, who has strongly backed the U.S. AI industry and warned that excessive regulation could undermine America’s position in the global technology race, has also acknowledged the industry’s communications problem.
“I would say that maybe it could use a little public relations help,” Trump told reporters at the White House.
