Smart planning, not panic, must guide Asia’s data centre buildout

Across the United States, home to 37 per cent of the world’s 10,800 or so data centres, 2026 has been awash with protests against this infrastructure buildout. On July 18 alone, 142 protests were reported across 42 states. According to Data Centre Watch, 75 US data centre projects worth US$130 billion have been blocked or delayed. According to recent Pew research, the more Americans know about data centres, the more negative they are: 67 per cent of American adults are anxious about their impact