This opinion piece argues that Silicon Valley, despite decades of winning over American consumers with products like the iPhone, Alexa and Google, is now facing unprecedented public backlash over the rapid build-out of AI data centres across the United States. The author warns that the tech industry risks repeating a "classic failure" by underestimating the strength of local opposition, with the row over data centres becoming a flashpoint in the broader debate about AI's costs and benefits to ordinary communities.

The piece cites growing resistance in states such as Texas, where Governor Greg Abbott has defended a pause on data centre development despite criticism from President Trump, as an example of the political tension the issue is creating even within the Republican Party. It frames the dispute as a states'-rights and local-control issue, suggesting that concerns over energy use, land and community impact are uniting Americans against the industry in a way previous technologies never did.