Public opposition to data center development is accelerating across Europe and Asia, mirroring and amplifying backlash already underway in the United States, according to CNBC reporting.
More than 70 data center projects in Europe faced rejection or restrictions between January and April alone, exceeding the total for all of 2025, according to the European Data Center Monitor. Public opposition has already impacted around $42 billion of data center investments in Europe through delays and cancellations, compared to $77 billion in the United States, research from STL Partners shows.
Concerns center on water usage, power consumption, electricity costs and land requirements. Olivier Darmouni, an associate professor at HEC Paris specializing in energy transition, told CNBC the pushback could be the "straw that breaks the camel's back" for the sector. He noted that "the gains of AI are very diffused" while the negative impacts concentrate locally.
Scotland has paused planning approvals for hyperscale data centers following campaigners' warnings about Ireland's experience, where overwhelming power demand triggered a moratorium. Denmark passed emergency legislation that could place data centers at the back of the queue for grid power. Spain proposed rules requiring data centers to source 80 percent of electricity from renewables. Projects in the UK have stalled after local opposition.
In South Korea, where the government named AI data centers as a major investment priority alongside semiconductors, local resistance is mounting. Residents in the Geumcheon district of Seoul have protested a data center project for 172 days as of mid-August, calling for permit revocation. In July, officials proposed requiring consent from a majority of residents living within 200 meters of proposed sites and introduced a three-stage review system for projects.
A community's ability to "derail a $10 billion data center plan is quite powerful," said Asya Walters, managing director at Alvarez & Marsal. She told CNBC that while the U.S. business-friendly environment has historically made it easier to overcome pushback, Europe and Asia face conflicting pressures between favorable conditions and restrictive regulation.
Eulalia Flo, vice president of growth for Equinix in EMEA, told CNBC the company does not view this as a structural constraint on growth but acknowledged that "the policy environment is genuinely tightening in some markets."