Data centers and reputation at risk
The conversation about AI data center build-out sites has started to focus on the communication dynamics driving the controversies. Residents, activists, news reporting, and social media are bursting with ideas about adverse impacts of data centers on environment, health, society, and/or local economies. Predictably, misinformation abounds, and people are making honest mistakes when trying to understand a complicated field of questions unfamiliar to them.
Companies and investors with financial stakes in data center buildouts must have a strategy for managing material risks from these controversies. I say this not to advocate for steamrolling local communities but to call for a paradigm shift in corporate responsiveness. When license to operate is under threat, the best outcomes will come to firms that position themselves as well-governed and responsive to stakeholder concerns.
Some of my quick takes for companies and investors in response to two new pieces in The Atlantic:
“How Much of Data-Center Activism is Really AI Slop?” by Kaitlyn Tiffany
Social media is a hotbed of misleading AI-generated content about data center development in states across the U.S.
For data center companies, scenario planning should include reputation vulnerabilities of peer companies, supply chain partners, and even geographic regions. Although community opposition is often focused on large-cap “Big Tech” companies, the firms that design, develop, and secure land for data centers would do well to use strategic methods to explore the plausible spread of a reputation crisis. Once one company has a public opinion crisis, a “guilt by association” dynamic can run across to other companies. The reason is simple: stakeholders infer category-wide flaws based on limited information.
“The Data-Center Panic is Overblown” by Elias Wachtel
As Wachtel writes, data center opposition is a stand-in for Americans’ uncertainty about the future that AI is positioned to bring for jobs, education, art, relationships, and more deep connections to our well-being.
Data center builders and operators need a pair of distinct but integrated communication strategies for managing (1) a public debate about substantive options for managing tradeoffs and (2) citizens’ emotional outpouring of fears and grievances. Companies should aspire to be perceived as well-controlled, with meaningful procedures for responding to stakeholder concerns. In contrast, aspiring to be trusted is likely a dead end, as risk communication expert Peter M. Sandman has long taught.
June 19, 2026
Photo by Nick Fewings on Unsplash
