Goldman sees US data center growth intact despite opposition

Oct 5 : Rising political opposition to US data centers has limited near-term impact on their rapid expansion, Goldman Sachs said, with its growth outlook through 2027 remaining largely intact.

Goldman raised its 2026 year-end US data center capacity forecast by 5 gigawatts(GW) to 64 GW, while reducing its 2027 year-end forecast by 5 GW to 90 GW, in a note on Sunday.

• Data centers, which provide the computing power ​to train and run AI models, have drawn opposition in communities nationwide over concerns about electricity demand, utility costs and other local impacts

• "While US data center development faces increasing political and community opposition, project data and our updated capacity estimates suggest that the US data center growth outlook through 2027 remains largely unchanged," Goldman said

• The Wall Street brokerage forecast US data center power demand to grow 38 per cent or 12 GW in 2026 and 38 per cent or 17 GW in 2027

• Just a third of Americans approve of the pace of data-center construction in the US, according to a June Reuters/Ipsos poll

• Only 14 per cent of respondents would support a data center being built in their community to support artificial intelligence projects for technology firms such as Meta, Alphabet, Amazon, Microsoft and Elon Musk's xAI, the poll showed

• "Public sentiment has also turned more negative," Goldman added

• The ⁠backlash poses a political challenge for Republicans heading into the US midterm elections on November 3