Lenders Tighten Scrutiny of U.S. Data-Center Projects Amid Growing Community Opposition

Data centers that power cloud storage and artificial-intelligence (AI) workloads have become focal points of local resistance across the United States. Residents cite noise, visual impact, higher electricity bills and intensive water use as primary concerns. In response, municipal governments and regulators are increasingly freezing, restricting, or banning new construction. At the same time, analysts project that big-tech firms will spend more than $6 trillion on AI through 2030, creating a “red-hot” financing market for the sector.

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• In the first quarter of 2026, at least 75 projects valued at roughly $130 billion encountered local opposition, according to research firm Data Center Watch.

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• A $12.3 billion bond sale was arranged for a Meta-partnered data-center project in El Paso, Texas, with JPMorgan and Morgan Stanley as lead arrangers.

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• A $9.7 billion warehouse credit facility for CyrusOne’s $500 million center in Sangamon County, Illinois, involved Morgan Stanley and KKR Capital Markets.

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• Bank of America is advising on a $16 billion campus in Saline Township, Michigan, built for Oracle, despite resident pushback.

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Bank of America’s global head of infrastructure and sustainable finance, Karen Fang, said lenders now prioritize “project readiness” – meaning completed permitting and demonstrable community support – alongside credit quality. JPMorgan’s head of AI infrastructure investment banking, Kevin Curtin, emphasized that the extensive work required to secure a loan makes community risk a material credit consideration throughout construction. Morgan Stanley’s chief financial officer, Sharon Yeshaya, described the industry as “capital-heavy” and noted the firm’s role in offsetting those risks for clients.

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A senior banker at a foreign lender reported that investors are beginning to price cancellation risk, while operators such as QTS are pre-emptively adding on-site power generation to mitigate opposition. Rajat Rana of Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan observed that many companies are actively addressing community concerns.

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• “I will primarily look for two things. One is the readiness of the project ... the second aspect I look for is the credit quality of the project,” — Karen Fang, global head of infrastructure & sustainable finance at Bank of America

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• “The amount of work that goes into putting a bank loan in place for one of these projects is significant,” — Kevin Curtin, head of AI infrastructure investment banking at JPMorgan

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• “Many companies building new AI data centers are trying to address these concerns,” — Rajat Rana, of Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, LLP

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