Meta Warns Midterm Backlash Threatens AI Data Centers

Meta executives said Democratic gains in the US midterms will make new data center construction significantly harder, while Goldman Sachs estimated that state and local moratoriums could put roughly 45% of planned US data center capacity at risk. Meta President Dina Powell McCormick said the industry has "not done as good a job as we needed to explain the benefits of these investments," and Goldman noted that "capacity at risk is not capacity cancelled." Hyperscalers rallied after the election while smaller operators such as IREN, Hut 8, Applied Digital and Core Scientific fell between 5.2% and 10% on November 4.