No Joke: How Data Center Wars Distract From Real Solutions

(An earlier version of this newsletter inadvertently omitted several paragraphs)

Charlie Berens is a Wisconsin comedian beloved for wickedly funny, and until recently apolitical, satires of “Midwest Nice” culture. He’s now become Public Enemy No. 1 to data center developers and AI model makers. 

Berens is on a crusade to block data centers, making at times unfounded claims to his social media audience of over 10 million that tech companies have no intention of paying their fair share for power and that they will drain aquifers and pollute the Great Lakes. He claims they’re building data centers to take away jobs while Wisconsinites see higher power bills and “the billionaires become trillionaires.”