Democratic gubernatorial candidates who pledged to halt data centre development swept to victory on Tuesday night, threatening to derail billions of dollars of planned investments for the AI boom over the coming years. … The “blue wave” of results on Tuesday, which also included a number of local ballot measures blocking the data centre construction, marked a sharp rebuke to President Donald Trump’s endorsement of the AI infrastructure building spree. … AI spending by a small number of Big Tech companies has supported much of the stock market gains since Trump took office. But the power-hungry computing complexes have sparked nationwide anxiety over their impact on air and noise pollution and electricity and water bills.

Other data center water use and regulation news:

• Reuters: Trump’s midterm drubbing demonstrates the power of data-centre opponents
• Bloomberg: AI data center boom set for upheaval after US election rout
• The Washington Post: Voters reject data centers across the country as the AI backlash grows
• The Wall Street Journal: A big loser at the ballot box: New data centers
• Truthout: Blog: The fight against Big Tech’s AI takeover must continue past the midterms