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Data centers have become a major issue in the Nov. 3 midterm elections in the US. While federal regulation on limiting new build is a longshot due to President Donald Trump’s opposition, states may still use their control over power markets and permitting rules to respond to popular backlash. BNEF's Lead US Policy Analyst, Derrick Flakoll joins to discuss. (Source: Bloomberg)

The frontier lab’s filing reveals $417 billion in future compute and infrastructure leases.

In today's Front Page: A freethinker's guide to the midterms. Can AI already hack your bank account? Jed Rubenfeld on Stop the Steal, Alaska edition. Is this disease too rare for American medicine to treat? And much more. Due to a technical glitch, The Front Page is arriving in your inbox a little later than usual this morning. We apologize for the delay! Now, on to the news. It’s Monday, October 26. This is The Front Page, your daily window into the world of The Free Press—and our take on the world at large. Today: Jed Rubenfeld on Trump’s legal foray into the Alaska Senate race. Tyler Cowen on the AI-enabled hacks that could spell financial disaster. A young woman’s maddening quest through the American healthcare system to find treatment for her mom’s rare disease. And much more. But first: Party loyalty, at what price? We’re eight days away from the midterms and American voters are, once again, being told that the stakes could not be higher. “This is the most important midterm in the history of our country,” President Donald Trump said at a rally in Kentucky earlier this month. Senator Bernie Sanders declared the vote “the most important midterms in modern history.” Every cycle, the rhetoric, it seems, gets more intense; the supposed stakes, more existential. On both sides of the aisle, politicians and their media allies present politics as a fight to the death between good and evil. And they argue that anything other than full-fledged support for your camp risks defeat. Given that The Free Press was founded to combat groupthink, it’s no surprise that we’re not exactly fans of this mindset—or the bad behavior, cowardice, and double standards it encourages. So today, we offer some counterprogramming to the team-sports hot takes that prevail elsewhere, with two columns making the case for refusing to comply with the instructions of the political elite. Up first, Erick Erickson, the conservative radio host and—usually—a reliably Republican voter. He explains why he will not be voting for Mike Collins, the GOP’s Senate candidate in his home state of Georgia. And—using some justifiably colorful language—he makes a broader point about partisanship, the rotten quality of candidates for office, and how to do something about both. Read Erick on why you should “refuse to eat the shit sandwich.” Next, Peter Savodnik tackles the Democrats who have fallen in line and endorsed Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed—including Barack Obama, who rallied for El-Sayed in Michigan over the weekend. El-Sayed has a long track record of comments and views that once would have been viewed as disqualifying, but that hasn’t stopped his party from backing him. The Democratic establishment is putting party over country, Peter argues. Will the voters? —Oliver Wiseman Tune In for LIVE Midterms coverage with The Free Press and 2WAY! The Free Press and 2WAY are teaming up for a real-time interactive election night special. You can tune in right here. Will Rahn will co-host with Mark Halperin and the 2WAY team, joined throughout by Free Press writers, editors, and contributors, including Douglas Murray, Mene Ukueberuwa, Audrey Fahlberg, and Suzy Weiss. Watch the election night special live from 8 p.m. to midnight ET on Tuesday, November 3, right here. Viewers can also visit this page to join the conversation and participate through 2WAY’s interactive community. MORE FROM THE FREE PRESS THE NEWS Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado has returned to Venezuela after nearly a year in exile, according to a spokesperson. Machado left her home country to receive the Nobel Peace Prize in 2025, and had been unable to return since the Trump administration backed Delcy Rodríguez, an ally of the country’s former dictatorial ruler Nicolás Maduro, as interim president. Elon Musk admitted on Saturday that SpaceX slowed down internet service for Ukraine via its satellite network Starlink, with Musk claiming he did so because the service was used to launch fa…

Some of the world's leading financiers are sounding increasingly alarmed about an AI bubble.

A new CNBC survey finds broad voter opposition to nearby AI data centers, creating a political challenge for Trump and Republicans ahead of the midterm election.

With the U.S. midterm elections looming, Americans are nearly as gloomy about the economy as they were when the nation was emerging from the pandemic.

Trump's government ownership stakes in 40 private companies could hand future Democratic presidents powerful leverage over gun, oil, and AI firms.

"Our shared language around artificial intelligence already places far too much emphasis on intelligence, and far too little on artifice," argues David Litt.

Trump pours nearly $1 billion into the power grid amid rising AI demand and blackout fears.

Several Google DeepMind employees have resigned in recent weeks over the company's Pentagon contract signed earlier this year that allows its AI technology to be used in classified settings. The post Google Deepmind Employees Resign in Protest over AI Deal with Trump’s Pentagon appeared first on Breitbart .

Iran’s security chiefs say there will be ‘zero red lines’ if Trump and Netanyahu attack again Iran will strike oil facilities, undersea cables, datacentres and AI facilities across as many as seven countries in the Gulf in the event of a fresh US-Israeli attack, Mohsen Rezaei, the secretary of Iran’s supreme national security council, has said. Mehdi Mohammadi, an adviser to Mohammad Ghalibaf, the hardliner who led Iran’s negotiations with the US to end the conflict between the two countries, said Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu had agreed in principle on an attack, but could not guarantee a successful outcome. He added: “We see the next conflict as an existential threat. The third war in two years means a threat to existence. Our strategy is ‘zero red lines’.” Continue reading...

Republican Sen. Roger Marshall and Democrat Adam Hamilton clashed over Trump, transgender athletes and AI in a heated Kansas Senate debate on Wednesday.

Datacenters, AI and distaste for the billionaires developing it has soured Americans on big tech How will Trump’s mass deportation agenda shape the US midterm elections? Our reporters answer your questions The campaign ad begins with a clear, idyllic stream that suddenly turns sludge-brown as two concrete datacenters slam onto its banks. Another facility thuds down on a peaceful suburban park, and two more crush-green pastures as an ominous soundtrack to a disaster movie blares overtop. “They’re coming for our rivers. Our neighborhoods. Our farmland,” a deep-voiced narrator says. “Because Brent Taylor wrote the law allowing datacenters to take over Tennessee.” Continue reading...

Data: Harvard Youth Poll, Fall 2026; Chart: Emily Peck/Axios Nearly two in three U.S. adults younger than 30 who plan to vote in next month's congressional midterm elections say their main motivation is to oppose President Trump and his policies, according to a newly released Harvard Youth Poll . The big picture: Seventy-seven percent of respondents disapprove of the president's handling of the economy, including about half of young Republicans. And just 9% say the U.S. is headed in the right direction — the lowest in the survey's history. Why it matters: Economic populism is driving emotions, along with concerns about war, AI, billionaires, deportation tactics, social policies and corruption. Majorities of respondents support Medicare for All, a wealth tax and bans on congressional stock trading. What we're watching: Just one in three Americans ages 18-29 say they'll definitely vote — a substantial drop from 40% who said so in 2022. Notably, most of that drop is driven by Republicans. Only 34% of Republican respondents said they'll definitely vote, down from 46%; 50% of young Democrats say they'll definitely vote, essentially unchanged. Just 22% of independents they'll definitely vote, down from 26%. Data: Harvard Youth Poll; Chart: Emily Peck/Axios Zoom in: Topping the list of what young people consider serious threats to their long-term financial security: rising prices and the cost of living (79%), followed by the power of large corporations (68%) and trade wars (68%). Nearly half said their household is struggling to make ends meet or getting by with limited financial security. By the numbers: 63% say their votes for U.S. House or Senate will be cast in opposition to Trump, while 14% say they're motivated by support of the president and 17% say he's not a factor. Two-thirds disapprove of the job Democrats are doing in Congress; 74% disapprove of congressional Republicans' performance. Stunning stats: For the first time in the poll's history, the share of young adults who said they expect to be worse off than their parents (27%) slightly exceeded the share who said they expect to be better off (25%). The difference was within the poll's margin of error, but the longer-term trend is striking. In fall 2021, 39% expected to be better off than their parents, while just 17% expected to be worse off. When Harvard first asked the question, only to college students, in 2003, 74% believed they'd be better off than their parents. In this recent poll only 28% believed it. When asked if they're more hopeful or fearful about America's future, fear (69%) outweighs hope (26%) by more than two to one. What they're saying: "At the beginning of adulthood, younger people should be able to see a path from hard work to a secure life, and the big question is whether that promise still holds," John Della Volpe, director of polling at Harvard Kennedy School's Institute of Politics, said in a conference call with reporters Wednesday. Methodology: The Harvard Youth Poll was conducted Sept. 30-Oct. 7, 2026, by the Harvard Public Opinion Project (HPOP) with Ipsos' KnowledgePanel®. It is based on a probability-based sample of 2,024 18-to-29-year-olds. The margin of sampling error is +/-2.61% for results based on the entire sample of adults; +/- 3.19% for the sample of registered voters; and +/-4.30% for the sample of those who plan to "definitely" or are likely to vote.

Kara Swisher on whether AI will ever be regulated

A Republican candidate in Minnesota has deleted a phrase from his campaign website stating that President Trump is unpopular, a mention that appeared to be a prompt given to AI to generate a message for the candidate. Eric Pratt, running in Minnesota's 2nd Congressional District, initially included an instructional phrase about how to craft a...

The move is the president’s latest attempt to address widespread opposition to the AI boom ahead of the midterm elections.

Voters across the country in this year’s midterm elections will decide on ballot initiatives to slow down development or issue guardrails for data centers, which have seen sharply increasing public backlash. President Donald Trump has pushed for data center development, arguing they are necessary in order to win the artificial intelligence race against China. However, […]

Trump says data centers should consider community "dividends" as AI financing worries grow.

President Donald Trump called for developers to offer dividends to communities in a bid to make data centers more popular. “If companies want to make their Data Centers popular, pay the community, and/or individuals within the community, a ‘dividend,’” Trump posted on Truth Social early Wednesday morning. “I have watched the process closely, and Data ...

The Trump administration is taking the position that existing criminal and civil laws will be enough to hold artificial intelligence developers accountable in an age of unpredictable AI agents, even as legal experts question whether this will suffice. President Trump’s so-called “Super Intelligence (SI) Force” argues it can create standards for AI firms with laws...

In today's Front Page: Aaron MacLean on Trump's turn toward Moscow. A report from the aftermath of the French riots. The scientist who won his life back. Arthur Brooks interviews his AI clone. And more.

Slowly but surely, the leading AI companies are creating a national self-governing structure to oversee their technology and its societal impact. With the federal government largely hands-off, Anthropic, OpenAI and others are self-regulating their technology and now setting up their own plans to redistribute their wealth. Why it matters: Not since the age of the robber barons have America's industrial titans wielded such sweeping power to shape society — and decide how their private fortunes should serve the public good. In the modern era, Washington has largely exercised those powers through regulation, taxation and public spending. The big picture: President Trump has no interest in new regulations. Instead, he has blessed a basic framework for the AI companies to regulate themselves — and potentially each other — outside of formal government monitoring. Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, Elon Musk's XSI, Meta and Nvidia are working on different versions of this. This is all voluntary and rests on the public trusting companies the size of industrialized nations to responsibly police themselves. These companies are in a frantic race to create human-surpassing superintelligence. All are pressing ahead, even as their leaders — particularly at Anthropic — warn of potentially catastrophic risks and profound economic disruption. At the same time, some AI leaders are promising to direct a portion of their vast wealth to benefit those outside their companies. Zoom in: At least three competing visions are emerging for sharing the spoils of the AI boom, each with a different answer to who should control the wealth. Anthropic: The company. On the eve of its blockbuster IPO, Anthropic pledged 5% of its shares to a new public benefit fund that could grow into one of the largest philanthropic institutions in history. At a hypothetical $2 trillion valuation, its stake would be worth $100 billion — more than the Gates Foundation's current endowment. Including earlier founder and employee pledges, roughly 20% of Anthropic's shares are earmarked for the public good. Musk: The people. Musk responded to Anthropic's announcement by urging the company to give shares "directly to the public." On Monday, Musk pledged to give every American child a share of SpaceX next year — a staggering $10.5 billion giveaway at current prices. Musk called it the "first of many," though he offered no details on how the unprecedented distribution would work. OpenAI: The government. CEO Sam Altman has floated giving the U.S. government a 5% stake in OpenAI through a sovereign wealth fund — potentially handing Washington a multibillion-dollar interest in one of the world's most powerful AI companies. Altman envisions an Alaska-style fund that could distribute the industry's investment returns directly to Americans, though the plan remains preliminary and would likely require congressional approval. Reality check: The numbers are staggering. So are the assumptions about future wealth, billionaire follow-through and the public's willingness to trust its benefactors. Bill Gates and Warren Buffett launched the Giving Pledge in 2010, a voluntary promise by billionaires — including Musk — to give away most of their fortunes. Gates built a philanthropic empire, only to become a lightning rod for conspiracy theories. Anthropic's ambitions depend on extraordinary growth projections — its own employees envision 17% GDP growth in 2030 — while Musk has a history of making spectacular promises that fail to materialize. Anthropic's roots in effective altruism , a philosophy deeply distrusted by the Trump administration and its allies, also raise a more fundamental question: Who gets to define the public good? Between the lines: No industry requirements or consensus exist on how best to redistribute their expected wealth. But Trump Accounts — which allow families, businesses and individuals to invest in tax-advantaged funds for children — are emerging as a favorite vehicle for free-market AI leaders. Billionaire investor Brad Gerstner, a driving force behind the program, is championing a vision of broad-based ownership in which ordinary Americans share directly in the economic upside of the AI revolution. SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell and her husband in July pledged roughly $320 million in company shares to 2 million children through Trump Accounts — a potential blueprint for distributing an even larger slice of Musk's fortune. What to watch: The Trump administration hasn't fully relinquished its regulatory authority, potentially complicating the emerging experiment in AI self-governance. After Anthropic disclosed that its AI had submitted a false homicide tip to Philadelphia police and improperly interacted with government websites, the White House declared that AI companies must report security incidents and remedy any harm. "This notification and remediation process is not optional," Trump's Super Intelligence Force warned — a striking assertion of federal authority just weeks after the president blessed a voluntary system of industry oversight. Axios' Zachary Basu and Bradley Olson contributed reporting.

Bernie Sanders wants to nationalize 50% of the AI industry and jail scientists, while Trump and Elon Musk push for a technological golden age.