The short answer
From October 9 to November 8, 2026, Spezia read 794 reports about U.S. data center projects. They describe 291 distinct events, because a few stories are carried by dozens of outlets. Of those events, 46 were opposition and 26 were disputes or delays, against 41 approvals and 68 announcements. By CNBC's count, voters sided against data centers in all but one of 41 local ballot measures.
- 794 reports describe 291 events. 67% of events were reported once, and 14 were reported ten times or more.
- 16% of events were opposition, 9% were disputes or delays and 14% were approvals.
- Opposition used formal tools: ballot measures, moratoria, zoning votes, petitions and lawsuits.
- A delay is not a cancellation. Published trackers disagree on how many projects have been cancelled.
- These are counts of news coverage for one month, not a census of local decisions.
How much data center news is there, counted properly?
From October 9 to November 8, 2026, Spezia read 794 reports about U.S. data center projects. Those reports describe 291 distinct events. On average, one event was reported 2.7 times.
- reports read in the month
- 794
- distinct events, each counted once
- 291
- reports per event, on average
- 2.7
- events reported only once (67%)
- 194
Most events are reported once. A few are reported dozens of times: 14 events had ten or more reports, and the most-covered story, Google's planned $17 billion buildout in Wyoming, had 94, including one from States Newsroom. Those few drive the average.
Counting reports instead of events would let wire-friendly news drown out local decisions. A wire story runs on dozens of sites, and a local meeting runs on one. That is why Spezia counts events.
| Type of event | Events | Share of events |
|---|---|---|
| Project announced | 68 | 23% |
| Opposition | 46 | 16% |
| Construction update | 44 | 15% |
| Approval | 41 | 14% |
| Dispute or delay | 26 | 9% |
| Market report | 22 | 8% |
| Power deal | 17 | 6% |
| Other | 11 | 4% |
| Acquisition | 6 | 2% |
| Expansion or hiring | 5 | 2% |
| Groundbreaking | 4 | 1% |
| Contract award | 1 | under 1% |
How much of it is opposition and delay?
About one event in six was opposition, and about one in eleven was a dispute or delay.
- Project announced23%
68 events
- Opposition16%
46 events
- Construction update15%
44 events
- Approval14%
41 events
- Dispute or delay9%
26 events
Events counted once per story, October 9 to November 8, 2026. Source: Spezia, build-out news.
There were more opposition events (46) than approval events (41). That is a fact about the news, not about outcomes. Routine approvals often get little coverage, and a fight gets a lot.
Where does opposition show up?
In five forms, and each is formal. The examples below are single reports published in the month, each linked at its source. Some describe decisions made earlier, such as a withdrawal in July.
| Form | Place | What was reported | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ballot | Local measures, 10 states | CNBC, citing Ballotpedia, counted 41 local data center ballot measures and reported that voters sided against data centers in all but one. The exception was Harwood, North Dakota. Other tallies run higher: Redbud Consulting counted at least 45 | CNBC, The Bond Buyer |
| Ballot | Oregon, Ohio | Voters approved an amendment banning data centers above 25 MW, and Vantage said its project would not move forward as proposed | 13abc |
| Ballot | Harwood, North Dakota | Voters rejected a charter amendment that would have given residents more say over large projects such as data centers. Applied Digital is building a data center in the town | Business Insider |
| Moratorium | Mountain Home, Idaho | The city adopted an emergency moratorium on accepting applications and issuing permits for data centers | Idaho News |
| Moratorium | Grant County, New Mexico | The county enacted a one-year moratorium on data center development | Albuquerque Journal |
| Moratorium | Little Rock, Arkansas | The board rejected a six-month moratorium on large data centers in a 4 to 4 vote. The ordinance needed six votes | Arkansas Democrat-Gazette |
| Moratorium | Boise, Idaho | The mayor proposed an emergency moratorium on data centers over 100,000 square feet or 20 MW | BoiseDev |
| Moratorium | Evanston, Illinois | A land use commission was set to consider a one-year moratorium on new approvals | Evanston Now |
| Court | Grayslake, Illinois | Residents sued over the village's approval of a T5 project, which the village says will bring about $18 billion of private investment. A judge said she would rule in writing on a motion to dismiss by Dec. 30 | CBS News Chicago, Patch |
| Court | Sangamon County, Illinois | A judge dismissed a lawsuit seeking review of the county's zoning approval for a hyperscale data center | Illinois Times |
| Petition | Landover, Maryland | A resident-led petition with more than 25,000 signatures helped put a proposed $5 billion data center campus on hold, with county pauses on approvals also credited | NPR, via WFSU |
| Withdrawal | Bonner, Montana | In July, the owner of the Bonner mill site withdrew his support for a proposed data center after community opposition, as Outside reported in November | Outside |
Two patterns are worth noting. First, the tools are local and legal: a vote, an ordinance, a zoning change, a court filing. They run on public calendars. Second, the results differ. Little Rock rejected its moratorium and Mountain Home adopted one. One Illinois judge dismissed a challenge to an approval, while another is weighing a motion to dismiss a different one.
The ballot results are the clearest signal. CNBC reported that voters sided against data centers in all but one of 41 measures. Harwood is the exception, and The Bond Buyer described it as one American town out of dozens that voted yes.
What counts as a delay?
A delay is a project that is later than planned, for any reason. In this month's coverage the reasons were varied: a city working on its rules, a commission asking for changes, a customer reconsidering its plans.
- Customer-driven. Business Insider reported that satellite images of two projects, including IREN's in Childress, Texas, may help explain why Microsoft's capital spending came in billions below expectations.
- Rule-driven. Colorado Springs delayed its decision on a proposed data center, Project Taurus, in September, and a nonprofit's report on the city's data center rules was under review in November, KOAA reported.
- Design-driven. The West Feliciana Planning and Zoning Commission pushed back approval of a second phase of a data center in Louisiana over how close a building would be to a neighborhood, The Advocate reported.
A delay is not a cancellation, and published counts disagree about how many projects have been cancelled. SemiAnalysis disputed the claim that half of 2026 U.S. data center capacity was cancelled. Axios described a boom hit by delays, in February. A law firm's review of construction claims cites JLL's finding that 57% of data center projects were delayed at least three months in 2025.
For the physical limit behind many of these delays, see the gigawatt power wall.
What should you do with this?
Spezia's read, by reader:
- Developers. Treat local approval as a schedule item with a date, not a formality. Ballot dates, commission agendas and moratorium hearings are public.
- Suppliers and contractors. A moratorium or a reversed approval is the earliest warning of a slipped job. Watch the counties where you hold work.
- Investors. Separate delay from cancellation before you mark a project down, and ask what kind of delay it is.
- Officials and residents. The tools above are used often and decided locally, so the record of how other places did it is public and worth reading.
For a checklist that covers approvals, power and money, see how to vet a data center project.
Follow approvals, opposition and delays on the projects in your states. Build-out news is read twice a day.
Open the data center trackerHow this was made
Spezia reads build-out news twice a day and files each report with its source and the sentence it was read from. Reports about the same event are grouped into one story, and a story is counted once. A story's type and state are the ones most of its reports share. The window is October 9 to November 8, 2026. A few events are split across two stories, so event counts are upper bounds. Event types are labels assigned by Spezia's model. The figures describe news coverage, not every local decision. Examples are single reports, linked at the source.
The data was read on November 9, 2026. Figures change as new research lands, and this post is updated when they do.
Sources
- Spezia U.S. data center project tracker, research run of November 9, 2026, Spezia
- Voters rebuff data centers in every ballot measure except one during the 2026 midterms, CNBC
- Vantage Data Centers says it will not move forward after Oregon voters approve Issue 25 ban, 13abc
- Harwood, North Dakota voters reject measure giving residents more say over large projects like AI data centers, Business Insider
- Only one American town out of dozens voted "yes" to data centers, The Bond Buyer
- Mountain Home adopts emergency moratorium on data centers, Idaho News
- Grant County enacts New Mexico's latest data center moratorium, Albuquerque Journal
- Little Rock board rejects 6-month data center moratorium, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
- McLean proposes emergency moratorium on some data centers in Boise, BoiseDev
- Evanston considers one-year data center moratorium, Evanston Now
- Grayslake neighbors ask Lake County judge to block data center construction, CBS News Chicago
- Judge weighs dismissal of lawsuit over massive Grayslake data center, Patch
- Judge dismisses data center lawsuit, Illinois Times
- An unexpected activist emerged to help block a $5 billion data center in Maryland, NPR, via WFSU
- An AI Data Center Set Its Sights on the Blackfoot River. Then a Montana Mountain Town Stepped In., Outside
- Satellite images show delays at data center projects tied to Microsoft's AI spending, Business Insider
- Nonprofit report looks at Colorado Springs data center regulations, KOAA
- River Bend data center site, zoning plans pushed back as Hut 8 reassesses Phase II, The Advocate
- Google commits to spending $17B on AI data centers in Wyoming, WyoFile, via States Newsroom
- Global AI data center boom hits delays, Axios
- Stop saying half of 2026 US datacenter capacity is canceled, SemiAnalysis
- FT: 47 large US data center projects delayed, withdrawn or blocked in 2026, AI Weekly, citing the Financial Times (secondary)
- Built but not ready: construction claims in the data center boom, Wood, Smith, Henning & Berman (cites JLL)
Common questions
Is data center opposition growing?
One month of data cannot show a trend. It does show what opposition looks like: 46 of 291 events (16%) were opposition, and the tools were ballot measures, moratoria, zoning votes, petitions and lawsuits.
How did voters vote on data center ballot measures in 2026?
CNBC reported that voters sided against data centers in all but one of 41 local ballot measures, with the exception in Harwood, North Dakota. These were local questions, such as bans on very large data centers, so the result says little about national opinion.
How many data center projects have been cancelled or delayed?
No single count is reliable. A tally of at least 47 large U.S. projects delayed, withdrawn or blocked in 2026 was reported by the Financial Times, as summarized by AI Weekly. SemiAnalysis disputed that half of 2026 capacity was cancelled. JLL found 57% of projects were delayed at least three months in 2025, as cited by a law firm.
What is a data center moratorium?
A moratorium is a temporary ban a city or county places on accepting or approving data center applications, often for six months or a year, while it writes rules. This month Mountain Home, Idaho adopted one and Grant County, New Mexico enacted a one-year one.
Why count events instead of articles?
Most events are reported once, but a few are reported dozens of times. Google's Wyoming buildout appeared in 94 reports. Counting articles would make wire stories look bigger than local decisions, so Spezia groups reports into events and counts each once.
Cite this
Spezia. "Data center opposition and delays: what a month of news shows" Spezia, November 10, 2026. https://spezia.ai/blog/data-center-opposition-and-delays
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