• Maine Gov. Janet Mills vetoed a bill that would have paused new data center projects until late 2027.
• Mills cited her support for an existing project and said she wanted to study data center impacts.
• Lawmakers in at least 12 states have tried and failed to ban data centers as local resistance grows.

Another state-level effort to ban new data center development just failed, this time in Maine.

Maine Gov. Janet Mills on Friday vetoed a bill that would have put a pause on data centers in the state until late 2027. Mills said she supports a moratorium on data center projects but that the bill, which passed the state House and Senate his month, did not include an exemption for a project already underway.

"A moratorium is appropriate given the impacts of massive data centers in other states on the environment and on electricity rates," Mills said in a letter to the state legislature. "But the final version of this bill fails to allow for a specific project in the Town of Jay that enjoys strong local support from its host community and region."

A statement shared by her office said the $550 million data center redevelopment project was needed in Jay, where a paper mill closure in 2023 "eliminated hundreds of good-paying jobs and dealt a significant blow to the local economy."

The governor said she would have signed the bill had there been a carve-out for the project, which she said is expected to create over 800 construction jobs and at least 100 high-paying permanent jobs in addition to generating property tax revenue.

Mills, a Democrat who is running for US Senate in 2026, said she plans to issue an executive order to create a council to look at the impact of data centers in Maine.

"I believe it necessary and important to examine and plan for the potential impacts of large-scale data centers in Maine, as the use of artificial intelligence becomes more widespread," she said.

Lawmakers in at least 11 other states have also tried and failed to pass legislation that would temporarily ban new data center development, Business Insider previously reported.

The data center boom, fueled by Big Tech's AI ambitions, has sparked pockets of local resistance across the US amid concerns about energy consumption and impact on energy costs as well as the environment.

A Business Insider investigation found Maine had two data centers in the state as of last year.

• If the AI boom ends up a bust, it won't be nearly as brutal as the dot-com crash, Igor Pejic says.
• The "Tech Money" author said Big Tech's self-reliance, varied businesses, and deep pockets help.
• However, he said the rise of index funds means a market slump would have widespread impacts.

If the AI boom collapses, it won't be as catastrophic as the dot-com crash — but the shockwave will be felt far and wide, Igor Pejic says.

The banker and author of a new guide for tech investors titled "Tech Money" told Business Insider this week that Big Tech's unprecedented dominance will limit the magnitude of any market decline.

Pejic underscored the greater "stickiness" of companies like Alphabet and Microsoft compared to the leading companies of the past, such as Exxon Mobil, General Motors, and IBM.

Big Tech companies have remained dominant for decades partly because of their platform models, which give them "almost limitless pricing power" and make them "almost impossible to dislodge," he said.

In other words, they've become powerfully entrenched by attracting so many users, app developers, hardware suppliers, advertisers, and other parties to their ecosystems over time. Now they can easily hike their fees, and new market entrants struggle to capture any market share from them.

Pejic also pointed out that Apple, Meta, and their peers have successfully navigated multiple technological shifts, such as moving from desktop computers to mobile devices and from on-premises IT equipment to cloud hosting.

Big Tech companies also throw off gobs of cash, enabling them to place several big bets at once, and fund their investments instead of relying on costly external financing. Pejic described that as a "moat" against rivals, especially in an AI race characterized by "tremendous infrastructure costs."

Shades of the past

Pejic drew several parallels between the AI boom and the dot-com bubble. The similarities include a game-changing technology, partnerships and financing deals between key players, the buildout of network infrastructure, and "extreme" valuations, he said.

Yet Pejic said an AI crash would "not be as devastating as the dot-com bubble when it burst."

Any market sell-off will be briefer and less severe because today's tech giants have highly profitable core businesses, he said, meaning their stock prices won't collapse completely if their AI bets flop.

They're also less likely to suffer a cash crunch or trigger a financial crisis given their limited reliance on bank funding, and investors have been more discerning about which AI stocks they buy versus rushing to own any business with ".com" in its name, he said.

Pejic did raise some concerns, including the fact that so many companies are spending huge amounts to build the best AI model possible, but the market can probably only support a few of them in the end.

He also flagged the immense amount of investor cash riding on a handful of tech stocks, given the rise of index funds that own indexes such as the S&P 500, which is weighted by market capitalization and thus intensely concentrated in the Magnificent Seven.

"It's very difficult to find a place to hide if this really goes down," Pejic said. "If you're keeping your money in the stock market and AI goes down, it will affect everything."

He noted that risk will only become greater as AI giants such as OpenAI, xAI, and Anthropic go public and join the index, increasing everyday investors' exposure to AI.

Pejic said owning Big Tech stocks was "perhaps the safest way" to profit from AI, given their self-reliance, vast resources, and diversified businesses, which should limit their downside and insulate them from industry shocks such as the emergence of DeepSeek.

For example, he praised Apple's approach of refraining from spending hundreds of billions on microchips and data centers, in favor of seeing how the AI race plays out, and partnering with peers or buying in capabilities to harness the tech.

Apple might not be the "most exciting company," but for investors, owning it is a "clever and quite safe strategy without burning too much cash," he said.

• Data centers power the AI revolution, and are sprouting all over the US.
• They can also be a drain on water and energy, and face opposition in many towns.
• A new Pew Research Center survey found that Americans who know about data centers don't like them.

There are over 1,200 data centers scattered across the United States, and thanks to the AI boom, many more are on the way.

Those data centers also, it seems, confirm the adage "familiarity breeds contempt."

A new survey from the Pew Research Council, conducted in January and published Thursday, found that the more Americans learn about data centers — and their effects on home energy costs, quality of life, the environment, local jobs, and tax revenue — the more cynical they feel about them.

"Two-thirds of adults who have heard a lot about data centers say they're mostly bad for home energy costs, compared with 42% of those who have heard a little," the center reported. "And 63% of those who have heard a lot about the facilities say they're mostly bad for the environment, compared with 48% of those who have heard a little."

Pew found that 25% of adults know "a lot" about data centers, while 50% said "a little" and 25% said "nothing at all." It surveyed 8,500 Americans for the report.

While data centers have been around for decades, their numbers are skyrocketing as companies like Amazon, Microsoft, Meta, and others race to develop ever more intelligent AI models.

Companies like Oracle, for example, will invest $500 billion over four years in AI infrastructure for OpenAI in a venture called Stargate, which is backed by the Trump administration. The president has made data center construction a key pillar of his administration's strategy to defeat China in the race to develop advanced artificial intelligence.

Many Americans outside Silicon Valley, however, feel as excited about another new data center as they do about AI overall. Some communities are now pushing back, citing concerns about energy costs and the environment. Tensions have flared at protests, city hall meetings, and on Capitol Hill.

In response to these growing concerns, tech leaders said this month they would cover a greater share of data center energy costs during a visit to the White House.

"They're going to be making their own electricity," Trump said of the tech companies. "They're not going to be taking from the grid."

Those companies signed a "pledge" to provide their own power, which, in the end, is voluntary and includes no repercussions if they don't comply.