The Permit Was Never the Hard Part. The Neighbors Are.

Meta's $50 billion, 5 GW Louisiana campus still hinges on a single 2026 docket, but the sharper signal this week is political. Maryland voters ousted data-center-friendly officials in three counties, Nevada and Wisconsin tightened their rules, and Governor Abbott told developers to bring their own power and water or stay out of Texas neighborhoods. Capital was never the constraint; the operators who invest in local government affairs and PR before groundbreaking are the ones who break ground at all.