India, June 19 -- There's a recent thread that holds together San Francisco, Vancouver, Tucson, Santiago, Dublin, London, Johor, Batam and the Indian port city of Visakhapatnam, also called Vizag. In an eerily fragmented geopolitical framework defining the world these days, the common element is a major pushback against AI data centres in these regions. At a time when India is opening doors to artificial intelligence (AI) data centre investments, global sentiment is in stark contrast, owing to impact on the environment including staggering local energy and water demands that underline this infrastructure.

The crux of this backlash can be best understood with data. First, question of electricity and infrastructure scaling required. Second...