OpenAI’s race to build the physical backbone of artificial intelligence is colliding with a blunt political reality: the public does not want the infrastructure next door. Sam Altman now acknowledges the problem even as his company presses ahead with an enormous U.S. expansion.

The warning signs have been mounting for months. Altman had already compared neighborhood resistance to his own reluctance to live beside a nuclear plant, despite believing it safe. In March, he said AI was not popular in the United States; by the latest Time interview, his assessment was even starker: “Clearly, people hate data centers—right now, at least.”¹

That admission lands at an awkward moment. OpenAI is expanding Stargate and related projects across the country, with plans reaching far beyond its original 10-gigawatt target. The company says it needs still more computing capacity, while trying to blunt opposition with community benefits and measures addressing water and power use. Its compute chief, Sachin Katti, put the industry’s appetite plainly: “If anything, we should have bought a lot more.”²

Residents see a different ledger: potentially higher electricity bills, water consumption, noise and overstretched local services. Polling cited in the reports found seven in 10 Americans opposed a data center in their area, while dozens of projects worth billions have been delayed or blocked. Opposition has spread well beyond communities already hosting the facilities.

The backlash is now reshaping state politics. Texas Governor Greg Abbott, once an enthusiastic promoter of AI development, said companies had failed to work with state and local authorities and “basically dug their own grave.” Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro has imposed new affordability, environmental and community requirements, while Texas regulators face mounting pressure to vet grid connections.

The split is sharp: AI companies frame data centers as essential national infrastructure; critics see them as the visible cost of a boom whose gains flow elsewhere. Even President Donald Trump has suggested the industry needs better public relations. For Altman, the harder task may be earning permission to keep building.