Dear MoveOn member,
Right now, Big Tech is building an AI empire—and everyday Americans are footing the bill.
More than 3,000 data centers already dot the American landscape, with 1,500 more proposed.1 In some communities, electricity bills have skyrocketed by more than 200%.2 A typical AI-focused data center consumes as much electricity as 100,000 households.3
Meanwhile, Big Tech executives are minting themselves as billionaires while working families struggle to pay rent and keep the lights on.4
Senator Bernie Sanders and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez recently introduced the AI Data Center Moratorium Act—a commonsense pause on this runaway expansion that would give Congress time to put real guardrails in place and protect us from Big Tech's unfettered greed.5
But Big Tech is already flooding Congress with lobbyists and dark money to try to kill this bill before it can get traction. The wealthy and powerful are counting on us to be distracted and divided while they lock in their advantage.
Here's what they didn't count on: people power. MoveOn members have shown time and again that when we organize, we win.
Will you chip in $9 now to help us build the grassroots pressure to pass much-needed legislation to regulate AI, like the AI Data Center Moratorium Act, and hold Big Tech accountable? (If you have saved your payment information with ActBlue, your donation will go straight through.)
The tech oligarchs are already too powerful and too rich. Just look at what’s happening in Utah.
A "Shark Tank" billionaire wants to build a data center roughly the size of Washington, D.C., in rural Utah—one that would use more electricity than the entire state currently does in a year.6
When local residents showed up to protest, that billionaire, Kevin O'Leary, claimed they'd been "bused in."7
This is what Big Tech's data center land grab looks like: out-of-state billionaires steamrolling local communities, draining their water, spiking their power bills, and dismissing anyone who dares to object.
But everyday people are fighting back. More than 10 states have already introduced legislation to pump the brakes on data center construction.8 Dozens of cities and counties are doing the same. This fight is being led community by community.9
Now, we need to take the fight to the national stage by passing the AI Data Center Moratorium Act—a commonsense pause to give Congress time to put real guardrails in place.
Will you chip in $9 today to help MoveOn build the grassroots pressure to pass much-needed AI data center regulations and hold Big Tech accountable? (If you have saved your payment information with ActBlue, your donation will go straight through.)
Thanks for all you do.
–Nakia, Allison, Noor, Kami, and the rest of the team
Sources:
1. "Most new data centers in the U.S. are coming to rural areas," Pew Research Center, April 13, 2026
https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2026/04/13/most-new-data-centers-in-the-us-are-coming-to-rural-areas/
2. "AI Data Centers Are Sending Power Bills Soaring," Bloomberg, September 29, 2025
https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2025-ai-data-centers-electricity-prices/
3. "WATCH: Ocasio-Cortez and Sanders push bill to impose AI data center moratorium," PBS News, March 25, 2026
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/ocasio-cortez-and-sanders-push-bill-to-impose-ai-data-center-moratorium
4. "AI is creating new billionaires at a record pace," CNBC, August 10, 2025
https://www.cnbc.com/2025/08/10/ai-artificial-intelligence-billionaires-wealth.html
5. "WATCH: Ocasio-Cortez and Sanders push bill to impose AI data center moratorium," PBS News, March 25, 2026
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/ocasio-cortez-and-sanders-push-bill-to-impose-ai-data-center-moratorium
6. "Shark Tank’s Kevin O’Leary wants to build a massive $100 billion data center in rural Utah. Residents are revolting," Fortune, May 11, 2026
https://fortune.com/2026/05/11/shark-tank-kevin-oleary-millionaire-utah-data-center-american-politics-protests-ai-tech/
7. "Kevin O’Leary says data center campus protesters were ‘bused in’ from out of state," The Salt Lake Tribune, May 8, 2026
https://www.sltrib.com/news/2026/05/05/kevin-oleary-says-protesters/
8. "These Cities and States Are Taking Aim at Data Centers," The Wall Street Journal, April 7, 2026
https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/these-cities-and-states-are-taking-aim-at-data-centers-3b98adf1
9. Ibid.
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