In 2025, a record $60 billion was invested in building AI data centers around the world, many of them in the US and Canada. Proposals for hyperscale data centers are popping up across Wisconsin, from Mount Pleasant, to Menominee, to Beaver Dam, and in Dane County. These complexes using anywhere between 5-50 megawatts of power would be filled with computer servers and take up hundreds of acres of land. To talk about the growing local opposition to AI data centers across the nation, host Douglas Haynes is joined by three guests: Michael Greif of Midwest Environmental Advocates, Mitch Jones of Food and Water Watch, and Ed Morganroth, Jr. of the group, No Data Center DeForest.

Featured image: aerial view of the Google Data Center in Council Bluffs, IA via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0).