AI data center outrage is showing up everywhere from ads to elections

During a brainstorming session earlier this summer, a group of comedians and employees at beverage company Liquid Death kicked around an idea for a brazen new advertising campaign that would humorously shed light on the amount of water required to operate massive AI data centers. 

"It was an idea of just, hey, what if we used pee to cool data centers instead of water?" Andy Pearson, vice president of creative at Liquid Death, told CNBC in an interview.

The outlandish idea turned into a collaborative 90-second video, created with Garage Beer, which is owned by Jason and Travis Kelce. The clip pledges to "send your pee to the AI data center of your choice."

Liquid Death and Garage Beer dropped the video on Tuesday, the same day voters in Florida headed to the polls to vote in the gubernatorial primaries, with the leading Republican candidates focused on data centers as a central issue. Rep. Byron Donalds, President Donald Trump's pick to succeed Gov. Ron DeSantis, won easily to move along to November's general election.

Last month, Donalds introduced the "Protecting Ratepayers Act," which aims to "ensure that private developers, rather than American taxpayers, bear the investment costs of data center developments that advance our country's technological dominance," according to a release. Donalds, however, received significant financial support from AI PACs like Leading the Future.

The Marc Andreessen-backed group congratulated Donalds after his win, saying he "understands that new, emerging technologies like AI play a key role in advancing that priority.

AI data centers, the large facilities that house the hardware for training and running AI models, are popping up all over the country, with far more coming down the line, if leading AI companies and hyperscalers get their way. But with the midterm elections less than three months away and Americans grappling with increased costs for groceries and stubbornly high prices at the pump, data centers have become a physical manifestation of the widespread antipathy for AI, which consumers associate with inflated electricity bills and job loss.

The National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) warned on Tuesday that data centers have become a "sleeper issue" for the entire midterm election cycle, according to a memo obtained by CNBC. Democrats are currently ahead in the generic ballot by 6.4 percentage points, according to a polling average from RealClearPolitics.  

Pearson said Liquid Death tries to "stay out of political things," but so many people are talking about AI and data centers that it's become a "pretty universal topic." More than half of Americans say they're more concerned than excited about the growing use of the technology in daily life, according to a report from the Pew Research Center published Tuesday. That's up from 37% in 2021.  

"You literally can't turn on the TV or radio without hearing about it," Pearson said. "It's really an issue that's uniting people across political and cultural spectrums."

The satirical video Pearson helped produce features former NFL star Jason Kelce, who is shown holding a jar of urine and walking through a field toward a data center singing, "We want your pee, please give us your pee. Let's pee on computers together, to save humanity."

In the NRSC's memo, the committee wrote that data centers have become a fixture of the contentious Senate race in Ohio, where Democratic candidate and former Sen. Sherrod Brown has made his opposition to them a "centerpiece" of his campaign against Republican incumbent Jon Husted. 

Ohio is home to several large data center projects, including a massive 10-gigawatt campus in Pike County that could cost more than $500 billion, as CNBC previously reported. OpenAI announced Monday that it has agreed to secure 8 gigawatts of that capacity, which is backstopped by a $105 billion commitment from Nvidia.  

Ten gigawatts is roughly equivalent to the annual power consumption of 8 million U.S. households, according to a CNBC analysis of data from the Energy Information Administration. 

"If voters' perceptions of data centers are not fixed quickly, the campaign against them will expand far beyond Ohio," the NRSC wrote in the memo, which was first reported by Axios. 

Should Husted lose because of data centers, "the industry will be blamed," and both parties will take notice, the committee wrote. The Ohio race is critical for Republicans in their effort to keep their slim majority in the Senate.

President Trump weighed in on Wednesday, acknowledging that while data centers "can use a little public relations help," communities should welcome them.

"I would absolutely want it because the jobs are enormous and the money paid, the taxes paid, are just enormous," the president said. 

A big emerging problem for the tech industry, however, is that voters from both parties disagree. Politicians are responding to their anger.

In Pennsylvania, Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro, who is eyeing a potential 2028 presidential bid, signed an executive order on Tuesday placing harsh standards on data center development in his state. 

The order requires data center developers to pay for all new electricity generation, transmission, distribution and other infrastructure required for their project. Developers also must commit to open and transparent engagement with local stakeholders, hire and train local workers, enter into "community benefit agreements" and abide by strict water and environmental standards.

Shapiro, who once welcomed data center projects, said he signed the order after hearing from "many residents across our Commonwealth who are concerned about what data center development could mean for our communities, our environment, and our utility bills."

Shapiro's Republican opponent in this year's election, state Treasurer Stacy Garrity, has also seized on data centers as an issue in the campaign, calling for a pause on future development while slamming Shapiro for his earlier positions.

Garrity's campaign website, which includes a link to "Donate with Crypto," accuses Shapiro of opening "Pennsylvania's door to data centers" and giving away "state tax dollars and resources to a company on the other side of the country."

CNBC reported in April that the data center boom in Pennsylvania was potentially putting incumbent Republicans in the state at risk. 

In Texas, where Republican Gov. Greg Abbott has championed data centers in the past, the mood has changed decisively. Abbott is now racing to put standards on data centers in his state, as Democratic challenger Gina Hinojosa rips him for his initial support of the facilities. 

Hinojosa told CNBC on Wednesday that Abbott has been "doing the bidding of the moneyed interests and not the people of Texas." Hinojosa has called for a data center moratorium until the legislature can meet to pass guardrails for them. 

Abbott issued a directive in June to require companies to pay for electrical infrastructure upgrades, reuse their own water and reduce the cost of electricity. On Tuesday, the governor announced in a press release that a number of companies agreed to his standards.

AI companies are acutely aware of the souring views toward data centers, and several have made pledges to try and assure Americans that their buildouts will benefit the country. 

In January, Microsoft published a blog post outlining the "concrete steps needed to be a good neighbor in the communities where we build." Days later, OpenAI made a similar pledge, promising to pay its own way on energy while minimizing water use and investing in local jobs and workforce pathways. 

"We believe that AI infrastructure⁠ is vital for American competitiveness and economic opportunity, while boosting local economies by creating jobs and bringing in local revenue," OpenAI said in a release at the time. 

Lawmakers are unmoved.

In July, New York Governor Kathy Hochul signed an executive order establishing the nation's first year-long moratorium on large data centers, effectively pausing the development of new facilities in the state. Hochul said she'll use that time to develop a regulatory framework that better protects the environment, ratepayers, the energy grid and communities in New York. 

Trump attacked the moratorium in a post on Truth Social, writing that the state should change its policy "IMMEDIATELY."

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei acknowledged the negative public sentiment around AI in a post on X on Saturday. He suggested that it stems from a fundamental "crisis of trust" towards the tech industry.

"I think that ordinary people don't trust companies, governments, or the tech industry and always suspect that we are cooking up some new way to screw them over," Amodei wrote. "The causes of this go back decades and AI is just the latest iteration of it." 

WATCH: ‘Texans are mad and fed up’: Texas gubernatorial candidate Gina Hinojosa on more data centers