Newly elected governors in Ohio, Georgia, Michigan, New Mexico and Texas campaigned on promises to stop or pause data center construction statewide, according to the report. Governors in New York and Oregon pledged to extend pauses already in place.
Cleanview, a market intelligence company, said about 40% of pending U.S. data center capacity is planned in states where newly elected governors have promised to stop or pause such construction. Bloomberg Economics counted 46 local ballot measures approved or on track to pass that also stall development, at least 17 of them outright bans on large-scale data centers.
Technology stocks fell Thursday on expectations of tighter regulation. The S&P 500 dropped more than 4% and the Nasdaq 100 fell 6.4%, erasing $2.3 trillion in market value, the report said. Justin Teresi, a Bloomberg Intelligence policy analyst, said, "It was obviously not a very good night if you're a data center developer."