An AI-industry-funded party in Washington celebrating data centers landed badly with the public, highlighting how far the tech push has drifted from the towns actually hosting the servers.

• Hundreds attended a pro-data-center party in DC sponsored by AI companies, the Manhattan Institute, and the Bitcoin Policy Institute.
• Partygoers defended data centers as the engine behind record-high stock market gains and America's tech future.
• Resistance to new data centers is growing across rural, suburban, and urban communities, and across party lines.
• A comprehensive study found the economics do not work out well for the towns that host them, on top of worries about water and electricity costs.
• The bigger fight is not about streaming or the internet — it is about giant AI facilities built with little local say, and a stated goal of replacing human labor.

Outlook: Local opposition is likely to keep spreading, with politicians in both parties distancing themselves from new data center projects.