Author Paris Marx tells Wired what data center fights in Ireland and Oregon show as the issue shapes US midterm races

What happened

Wired this week published an interview between reporter Molly Taft and author Paris Marx. His new book examines the tech industry's pursuit of power and the opposition it has faced around the world. Marx told Wired he did not expect the issue to come to a head just as the book was coming out. Wired noted that data centers are among the issues that could decide key midterm races in less than two weeks.

As Wired described it, the book moves from antiwar protests aimed at American computers during the Vietnam War to more recent resistance in Ireland and Chile. It ends with an alternative approach in New Zealand. Taft told Marx that the book shows how other countries and communities served as early warning signs.

Early warnings from Europe and Asia

Moratoriums dating to 2019

Marx said the Netherlands and Singapore had data center moratoriums going back to 2019. By 2022, he said, people in Ireland were increasingly recognizing how much electricity data centers were starting to draw from the energy grid.

Ireland's grid limits and the shift to gas

Marx said Dublin passed a moratorium in 2021 after the grid operator said it lacked the capacity to connect more data centers. According to Marx, the industry responded in three ways. It looked to build in other parts of Ireland, tapped the gas network to run generators, and eventually built dedicated gas power plants instead of connecting to the grid.

Marx said data center operators obtained emission licenses from the Irish Environmental Protection Agency to burn fossil fuels. The agency warned that climate targets would become harder to reach. He also said companies lobbied for legislation that would essentially let private firms build electricity cables in a country where only the public utility can build power lines. He said that raises questions about equity.

Marx said that when he started to see the same thing happen in the US, he was not surprised because he had already seen the story play out before. He added that the scale of it is staggering, as is how quickly it has escalated.

A water fight in Oregon

Google's figures in The Dalles

Marx pointed to The Dalles, Oregon, where he said Google tried to hide its water use figures and got the city council to try to keep them secret. He said that lasted for the better part of a year. When residents finally obtained the numbers, they learned Google was using 29 percent of the community's water.

Marx said ChatGPT's release at the end of 2022 made it clear that generative AI would require many more data centers. He expected the effects already felt in places like these to reach many more communities. More coverage of these topics is on our AI and tech page.

What happens if AI demand falls

Lessons from the dotcom bust

"I think we're in an AI bubble," Marx told Wired. He said planned data centers and gas plants face problems getting turbines, chips and other components. He questioned whether they will be built before demand for AI is reassessed.

He compared the moment to the dotcom era. He said many data center companies failed then, and survivors such as Equinix bought up facilities to be ready when demand returned. This time, he said, AI chips are expected to be cycled out within a few years, so a building's most valuable equipment may no longer be useful when demand recovers. He added that gas plants built for data centers would still exist and would look for new customers.

Calls for regulation

Marx said he would like governments to put firmer regulations on data center development and pair them with rules for AI products themselves. He argued that many promises about generative AI have not been realized and that harms have emerged. He said people should ask how much computation and how many resources are actually justified.

He highlighted a community-led project in New Zealand to build a more accurate speech-recognition model for the Māori language, with data hosted by local cloud providers. A Wired colleague who covers Europe told Taft he would not be surprised if data centers become a political flash point there as countries vote next year.

What to watch next

• Midterm races less than two weeks away, where Wired says data centers are one of the issues that could decide key contests.
• Whether planned US data centers and gas plants are built before demand for AI is reassessed, a question Marx raised.
• Elections in European countries next year, where a Wired reporter said data centers could become a political flash point.
• Major federal tax benefits that rural data center projects could become eligible for starting next year under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, according to separate Wired reporting.