OpenAI, Blackstone, SoftBank ally with unions on data centers

Blackstone, OpenAI, QTS and SoftBank have joined five building-trades unions to form the American Infrastructure Alliance, a multimillion-dollar coalition that wants to head off local moratoriums on new AI data centers by writing standards and guardrails with state officials by 2027, Axios reported.

The union side includes the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, the United Association of plumbers and pipefitters, the sheet metal workers' SMART, the Iron Workers, and the heat and frost insulators (HFIAW). Initial campaigns are aimed at seven states: Texas, Georgia, Ohio, Iowa, Pennsylvania, Indiana and South Carolina, where zoning fights and construction bans have become the friction point for hyperscale build-out.

The coalition's own polling shows why they went looking for a union label. In Ohio, 67% of those surveyed hold an unfavorable view of data centers, against 18% favorable. According to the group, those numbers flip when developers commit to keeping electricity costs low, creating jobs and generating tax revenue.

"Blanket bans on necessary infrastructure projects would set back our economy and threaten good middle-class jobs," said Kenneth Cooper, the IBEW's international president. QTS co-CEO Tag Greason kept the pitch to state legislatures narrower: "Responsible growth requires clear expectations for everyone involved."