Michael Dell on proposed data center moratorium: 'That's not a great idea'

Our Take

Michael Dell says a moratorium on data center construction is "not a great idea" because society needs AI to get smarter. Easy to say from a stage at a CNBC forum. Harder to say to the family in Georgia or Virginia whose power bill jumped because a hyperscale campus got first call on the grid. "We need AI" is a fine applause line, but it's not an answer to who pays for the substations, the water contracts, and the transmission upgrades that get quietly baked into utility rate cases.

Moratorium fights aren't happening because towns hate innovation. They're happening because local officials signed deals — often with confidentiality clauses — before residents saw the load projections, the water draw, or the tax abatement math. When a billionaire tech executive waves off the idea of hitting pause, what he's really defending is the pace of approvals, not the merits of AI itself. Nobody serious is arguing against intelligence. People are arguing for a say before the concrete gets poured.

If you want to see how many of these campuses are already running or under construction near you, check our facility map, and if your community is facing a rezoning or utility filing tied to a new data center, our take-action page has steps for getting into the record before the decision is final.