Research cited by Fortune points to a sharp rise in data center opposition across the U.S., with the scale of project delays and cancellations accelerating alongside the AI infrastructure boom. Data Center Watch reported that in the first three months of 2026, at least 75 data center projects worth more than $130 billion were delayed or canceled, matching the opposition scale seen across all of 2025. Active opposition groups nearly doubled from 396 at the end of last year to 833 by late March 2026, spanning 49 states. The findings also point to expanding state policy responses, including at least a dozen state-level moratoriums, with New York passing a one-year pause on large data center permits. For higher education institutions planning AI research, cloud integration, and advanced computing, the takeaway is operational: regional constraints on power, water, and permitting can affect where computing capacity becomes available. Community governance and state permitting timelines may become a new risk factor for university-adjacent AI infrastructure development and partnerships.