Editor’s note: “Data Center Backlash Isn’t Killing AI Spending. It’s Changing Where the Money Goes.” was previously published in September 2026 with the title, “What the History of Electric Wires Can Teach Us About the Data Center Backlash.” It has since been updated to include the most relevant information available.

Listen to the audio version of this article (generated by AI).

Industry overview

The data center backlash is real, but it is not the first one investors have faced. Luke Lango of InvestorPlace’s Hypergrowth Investing looks back to the 1880s for the parallel — and for the lesson about where the money goes when the public turns against new infrastructure.

One October, in the late 1880s, just before 1 p.m., two Western Union linemen climbed a pole in lower Manhattan, New York City, to cut down dead electrical wires. Only one returned alive. Atop the 50-foot-high pole, crowded with electric wires, a nearby fireman caught a terrifying glimpse of the grisly scene. One of the men, John Feeks, fell from the pole, struck a crossarm, and came into contact with an electric wire. At that moment, “The current was completed,” the Ann Arbor Register reported. Feeks’s body stiffened. His leg remained hooked over the crossbar. “There was no movement.” His coworker scrambled down and fled. Below, people witnessed a scene Deputy Coroner Jenkins described as the most ghastly he had ever seen. Even afterward, Jenkins could not say whether the current had killed Feeks immediately: “The shock may or may not have killed him instantly.”

The horror soon became public fury, and a full-blown electric wire panic. Building owners cut wires above their rooftops. Newspapers demanded accountability. The next day, Mayor Hugh Grant ordered unsafe wires removed. New York had already passed legislation requiring wires to go underground. Feeks’s death gave that longstanding fight a terrible urgency.

The Backlash Didn’t Stop Electrification

Put yourself in an investor’s shoes. A technology that promised to transform everyday life had become a source of public terror, and authorities ordered its infrastructure torn down. Would you have bet on the future of electricity? Two years later, a traveling lineman named Henry Miller organized a convention in St. Louis that founded what became the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. Today, electrical power-line installers and repairers earn a median $95,320 a year, or nearly twice the median for all occupations. The lesson Lango draws is that a technology’s dangers can make the work of building and maintaining it more valuable. When investors see backlash, they tend to ask how much growth it could destroy. Lango thinks there is another question worth asking: how do we solve the problems standing in our way? Investors who see only the panic may be putting fear of the unknown ahead of the opportunity.

$130 Billion in Projects Were Blocked or Delayed

Let’s give the panic its due first — because it’s real, and now it’s measurable. Organized opposition delayed or blocked an estimated $130 billion worth of U.S. data-center projects in the first quarter of 2026 alone. New York enacted the nation’s first statewide moratorium on new hyperscale facilities over the summer. And AWS chief Matt Garman says more than 100 local moratoriums are now under consideration across the country, as communities push back on electricity prices, water use, construction, and secrecy around new projects. The industry is already reaching for the old playbook. Amazon (AMZN) just committed more than $1 billion to its host communities in a move Lango calls the 2026 version of burying the wires. The electric industry didn’t win its fight by dismissing public fear but by spending money to address it. The data-center industry just started doing the same thing.

The Backlash Is Rerouting AI Spending, Not Ending It

Meanwhile, the demand behind this buildout just got locked in. Anthropic’s leaked initial public offering (IPO) prospectus reportedly shows roughly $518 billion in compute and infrastructure commitments. About 80% of that is noncancelable or payable regardless of usage, with obligations stretching into the 2030s. And OpenAI’s annualized revenue run rate is approaching $70 billion, up more than 70% since the start of the third quarter. Wall Street keeps lining up behind the buildout: SpaceX (SPCX) is reportedly seeking $40 billion in debt to buy Nvidia chips; lenders including Apollo and Blackstone are assembling a $50 billion-plus package to finance OpenAI’s custom silicon; and CoreWeave (CRWV) is courting insurance-company capital. Even this month’s rate-driven selloff in the most leveraged AI names hasn’t touched those commitments.

The Data Center Stocks Benefiting From the Bottlenecks

So, the backlash isn’t stopping AI dollars. Rather, it’s rerouting them toward the companies that build, wire, and power data centers on-site. Follow the paychecks and you’ll see it. Experienced electricians now command north of $100,000. Postings for welders and pipefitters are up 164% year over year. Welders can graduate high school and earn $65,000 to $75,000 in short order, with almost unlimited overtime. Unlike the internet boom, which mostly rewarded advanced degrees, this is a blue-collar resurgence — and it shows up in the order books. EMCOR Group Inc. (EME) ended June with a record $17.1 billion in remaining performance obligations, up 44% year over year. Comfort Systems USA Inc. (FIX) posted a record $14.1 billion backlog, up 73%. Quanta Services Inc. (PWR) is sitting on $53.4 billion. On the power side, Bloom Energy Corp. (BE) topped $1 billion in quarterly revenue for the first time, up 166%. Caterpillar Inc. (CAT), whose generators are a go-to for on-site power, is one of Lango’s favorite ways to play this. And Anthropic just signed an $11.6 billion, seven-year compute deal with Akamai Technologies Inc. (AKAM) to tap its distributed cloud network.

Could Orbital Data Centers Bypass Some of Earth’s Constraints?

Now take that logic all the way. If land, water, and angry neighbors are the constraint, what happens when you build somewhere with no neighbors at all? A few weeks ago, SpaceX (SPCX) sent Starship into orbit for the first time. Elon Musk says the company’s first AI compute satellites, powered by Nvidia Corp. (NVDA) chips, will launch in late 2027 and hit “significant scale” in 2028. Then Alphabet Inc.’s (GOOGL) Google sent its own AI chips into orbit shortly after — alongside two startups testing whether power can be beamed between satellites. It’s early, and it’s expensive. Barclays estimates orbital compute costs roughly three times as much as building on the ground. For the next few years, the boom here on Earth keeps rolling. But Lango keeps coming back to one thing: in 1889, Thomas Edison and George Westinghouse dominated the headlines, which locked in their war of the currents, while the steadier fortunes went to the builders who strung the wire, dug the conduits, and supplied the equipment that electrified the country. The same thing is happening today. Only the headlines are about moratoriums and chatbots. Wherever new infrastructure goes, a class of builders and suppliers follows. They rarely get the magazine covers, but they’re usually where the money is made. Orbital data centers won’t be any different. Everyone is watching SpaceX. Yet, far fewer are watching the companies that will build, launch, power, and connect the compute Musk wants to put in space. That supply chain is what Lango calls “XPANSE.” He thinks it could be one of the most asymmetric setups in the entire AI trade, and he has put together a full briefing on it, including the companies he believes are best positioned to profit as this buildout leaves the ground.

Industry overview based on InvestorPlace

What it means for investors

For investors, the message is to follow the rerouted money, not the moratorium headlines. The demand is locked in — Anthropic’s roughly $518 billion in compute commitments, about 80% of it noncancelable, and OpenAI’s revenue run rate approaching $70 billion — while the backlash is pushing spending toward the builders: EMCOR, Comfort Systems USA, and Quanta Services all sit on record backlogs, Bloom Energy just topped $1 billion in a quarter, and Caterpillar’s generators are a go-to for on-site power. That is the same pattern Lango sees in the 1880s, when the steadier fortunes went to the people who strung the wire rather than the headline names fighting the war of the currents. Orbital data centers are the longer-term version of the same idea, but Barclays puts their cost at roughly three times ground-based compute, so the near-term opportunity is still on Earth. The risks are real — more moratoriums, higher rates, and the selloff in leveraged AI names — but the commitments behind the buildout have not moved.

What it means for employees

This story has a direct employee angle — it is, at heart, a jobs story. The AI buildout is a blue-collar resurgence: experienced electricians now command north of $100,000, postings for welders and pipefitters are up 164% year over year, and welders can leave high school and earn $65,000 to $75,000 in short order, with almost unlimited overtime. Electrical power-line installers and repairers earn a median salary of $95,320 a year, nearly twice the median for all occupations — a trade whose modern union, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, traces back to a St. Louis convention organized by lineman Henry Miller two years after John Feeks’s death. Unlike the internet boom, which mostly rewarded advanced degrees, this buildout rewards the skilled trades that build, wire, and power data centers.

What it means for customers

This story has no direct customer angle, but the backlash itself is about customers and communities. Towns are pushing back on data centers over electricity prices, water use, construction, and secrecy — the same concerns that shape household bills and daily life near a new facility. The industry’s answer so far is money: Amazon has committed more than $1 billion to its host communities, echoing the way the electric industry once buried its wires to win the public over. For people living near these projects, the practical question is whether that spending actually eases higher power prices and strained water supplies. Longer term, if compute moves to orbit, the neighborhood fights could fade — but that is years away, and for now the costs and benefits of the AI buildout land squarely in the communities hosting it.

Note: Investment calculations and projections are for illustrative purposes only. Market conditions change frequently. Consult a qualified financial advisor before making investment decisions.