Found first: a primary source the press has not covered yet.
Data & Society published a report on September 21, 2026 based on 18 months of ethnographic fieldwork in Pennsylvania, counting an estimated 137 active or proposed data center projects in the state. Its central finding is that communities opposing AI infrastructure are using that fight to push back on what the report calls broader, remote systems of power.
What the source says
The report is authored by Maia Woluchem, Livia Garofalo, Ana Carolina de Assis Nunes, Joan Mukogosi, and Cella Sum at Data & Society. It draws on 18 months of ethnographic fieldwork throughout Pennsylvania and counts an estimated 137 active or proposed data center projects in the state. Those promoting this infrastructure, whom the report calls "AI boosters," advance a narrative of inevitability that the authors argue is "created by those whose interests it serves." Communities draw on Pennsylvania's industrial history in forming their opposition. The report identifies data centers as an "Achilles heel" for AI corporations, and notes that the fight is described by communities as being "about more than AI."
Why it matters
Pennsylvania is among the most active U.S. states for data center development. This is the first systematic, ethnographic account of how host communities organize against it, with 18 months of fieldwork and direct testimony behind the findings. The report documents that Pennsylvania communities frame resistance as a challenge to remote corporate power more broadly. A fight positioned that way can recruit participants from beyond the immediate neighborhood and persist beyond any single siting decision.