The Washington Post‘s Editorial Board makes the case for letting “private capital determine how many data centers America needs.”

From Cafe Hayek. 

"But the political movement to slow down or block the growth of data centers could have adverse consequences for the entire economy. By some estimates, AI-related goods accounted for as much as three-quarters of all global trade growth in the first quarter of 2026 and upward of a third of U.S. economic growth.

Financial risk does not diminish the structural utility of technological advances. Many railroads failed, but the track remained. Ditto for companies in the 1990s that laid fiber-optic cable, which continues to generate value.

If CoreWeave has borrowed too much, creditors and shareholders will bear the consequences. If Microsoft or Meta wants another gigawatt of electricity, they should pay the cost of producing and transmitting it. But neither investors nor consumers benefit when zoning boards, permitting regimes and utility bottlenecks prevent otherwise economically viable projects from being built."