At least 37 people have been arrested in the United States in 2026 for protesting the construction of AI data centers in their communities. The charges against these protesters are minor: applauding, exceeding allotted speaking time, refusing to show identification. A project by OpenAI and Oracle in Wisconsin is estimated at 15 to 18 billion dollars. This situation echoes the resistance already faced by the cryptocurrency mining industry, particularly in New York and Texas. The protests have no direct link to digital asset prices, but they illustrate the growing rivalry between AI and the crypto sector for access to the same resources: electricity, land, cooling water, and political goodwill in rural communities.
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