In July, about 1,000 Georgia residents gathered at the Effingham County College & Career Academy to hear about what OpenAI could do for them.
A day earlier, the artificial-intelligence company had announced plans to build a new data center in the area near Savannah. The event was billed as an open house where concerned locals could get their questions answered.
On their way in, attendees filed past protesters holding signs that read "I didn't vote for AI" and "You can't drink data!!!" Inside, OpenAI employees staffed booths offering information about the planned data center. There were QR codes linking to a job board, along with posters showing what the facility might look like. There was a taco bar.
There was also richer fare on offer: In announcing the project, the company pledged to invest $80 million in the community and provide as much as $71 million in coding credits to local students.
Chris Lehane, OpenAI's chief global affairs officer, said hosting an open house was "an important piece" of winning community buy-in. "People really do want to know, like, 'Are my electricity bills gonna go up or not? Is this gonna impact my water supply? Am I gonna pay more or less in taxes?'"
Open houses, multimillion-dollar community pledges, free tacos-none of that used to be the norm for an industry that could rely on speed, confidentiality and political connections to get gigantic computing facilities approved and built on favorable terms. That is rapidly changing in the face of a volcanic grassroots backlash that threatens the foundations of the AI boom.
The powerful tech companies behind the AI infrastructure build-out are putting on a full-court press to solve a public relations crisis that has been derailing projects and scaring off political allies fearful of getting caught up in the blast radius. They are changing how they negotiate data-center deals, adding sweeteners such as jobs guarantees and clean-water investments. They are touting the way data centers are shifting tax burdens off nearby households in some cases. Meanwhile, their top executives are increasingly talking about AI in ways that emphasize potential broad-based economic opportunity rather than job displacement or other scary scenarios.
Earlier in August, Meta Platforms announced a $1 billion "Future Is For Everyone" fund to pour money into the communities where Meta has data centers. The company is planning up to $145 billion in capital spending this year, largely to build out AI infrastructure.
In a sprawling 6,500-word essay, Meta Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg pointed to the experience of Richland Parish, La., where sales tax collections juiced by construction of the company's Hyperion data center led to teachers receiving bonuses of as much as $50,000.
In an interview, Lindsay Elin, a vice president of public policy at Meta, said the company's investment from the $1 billion fund will look different in each community. She said Meta plans to sit down with school superintendents and police chiefs to see what might be financially beneficial to them.
"There's an opportunity to think about how we're showing up and being a good partner, and we need to do that on a scale we haven't done before," she said. Meta previously doled out roughly $94 million through a prior community grant program.
In his essay, Zuckerberg also promised that Meta data centers were committed to being "water-positive," meaning the company would restore more water than it uses in those communities by 2030. In "high water stress" areas, Zuckerberg said his company's goal was to restore 200% of the water it uses. Water, needed for chip-cooling systems, has been a rallying point for data-center opposition, although proponents note that newer systems require dramatically less water or use air-cooling.
The company also launched a "workforce academy" program to train skilled laborers. The free five-week course guarantees graduates a job at a Meta data-center construction site.
Data centers have rapidly become one of the most salient issues in politics, with 71% of Americans saying they would oppose the construction of one in their local area, according to Gallup.
The first quarter of 2026 saw the largest single-quarter concentration of blocked and delayed data center projects on record, according to Data Center Watch, a research project backed by AI safety company 10a Labs. In July, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul ordered a temporary ban on large data center construction. Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro on Tuesday signed an executive order placing strict guardrails on new data centers.
"The politics of data centers have become more prominent and unambiguous across the country," said Microsoft Vice Chair and President Brad Smith.
In an interview, Smith said Microsoft executives recognized the need for a more community-focused approach to building data centers after seeing the issue prove pivotal in elections last November, including New Jersey's gubernatorial race, where Democrat Mikie Sherrill campaigned heavily on the price of electricity and won.
"As soon as, especially, the New Jersey race was over, it was clear that this was on a different trajectory," he said. Two months later Microsoft announced a series of commitments around electricity, water use, jobs and taxes.
Data-center opponents frequently cite rising electricity prices, environmental impacts and noise as grounds for fighting new projects, and some also oppose the development of AI itself, believing it will wipe out large numbers of jobs or otherwise degrade society.
Clifford Young, the chair of Ipsos Public Affairs, said data-center backlash is feeding off a "broader-based belief that the system is broken and no longer working for the average person...it's become, I would say, even a poster child for it."
Nondisclosure agreements between data-center developers and local governments have been a particular lightning rod for the industry, drawing condemnation from activists who say tech companies employ them to get projects approved without a chance for local opposition.
In March, Microsoft announced its decision to end the use of nondisclosure agreements with local governments in communities where it is looking to build.
In Gilroy, Calif., many residents learned of a $2 billion Amazon.com data center after construction had already begun, The Wall Street Journal reported. After an outcry, the company met with a number of local residents and hosted its own open house, Roger Wehner, vice president of economic development at Amazon Web Services, said.
Wehner said Amazon has contributed more than $1 billion "to support community partners and organizations around the world, helping to address their most critical needs and make a lasting impact" in the last three years. Amazon said that the Gilroy project went through a multiyear approval process including public notices and periods for public comment.
Responding to concerns about data centers' effects on utility bills, Amazon, OpenAI, Meta, Microsoft, Google and others signed The White House's Ratepayer Protection Pledge earlier this year, vowing to cover the cost of the electricity their facilities require to avoid passing it down to consumers.
Ben Green, an assistant professor of information and public policy at the University of Michigan, said he sees a disconnect between tech companies' PR tactics and their actions: "They're saying on the one hand, 'Oh, we want to be a good neighbor. We want to support the community.' On the other hand, they're fighting back against moratorium bills and other regulations."
Microsoft's Smith said there is a limit to how much tech companies can shift public opinion through messaging efforts that lack deeper substance. "People are smart. Even if you don't inform them, they find ways to inform themselves."
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