If Trump has his way, the next generation of data centers will run dirtier than the last. It isn’t enough to kill renewables and pave the way for more coal and gas plants to power energy-hungry AI data centers. The law came at a crucial time for tech companies, which were expanding data centers as the AI arms race picked up steam. Unlike other data centers, they don’t need to be built near population centers to reduce latency. They’d rather keep building data centers close to population centers where they can repurpose the facility for other uses if needed.