In a memo shared first with The Hill, the tech watchdog group outlined the costs to voters from the server warehouses powering the AI boom, arguing that Americans are paying more in household bills while major tech companies receive tax breaks.
"Across the country, Big Tech companies have claimed billions in federal and state subsidies to build their deeply unpopular data centers – and left taxpayers holding the bill," Sacha Haworth, founder and executive director of the Tech Oversight Project, wrote in the memo released Monday.
Data centers have increasingly become a major issue in the midterms, as Americans have grown wary of the push to rapidly build more of these facilities across the country to support the AI boom.
The Tech Oversight Project underscored that Republicans are aware data centers have become a problem from some of their candidates, like Sen. Jon Husted (R-Ohio).
In August, the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) argued data centers are "the anchor hanging around Husted’s neck," warning that "politicians across the country will take notice" if data centers are blamed for costing him the election.
Democrats have increasingly viewed data centers as a means of knocking their GOP opponents over cost of living and corruption concerns.
"This message rightly points out the pay-to-play attitude the Republican Party has toward Big Tech," Haworth noted in the memo. "But that doesn’t solve the cost-of-living crisis Americans are living through; voters demand solutions."
Read more in a full report at TheHill.com
