Briefing note

The scale of the moment

The largest capital programme ever undertaken by private companies is under way, and it is accelerating. The communities it has to land in are turning against it just as fast. That gap is the market we are building for.

Refreshed 19 September 2026next refresh after Q3 earnings, late October

See the opportunity The numbers

The numbers

Unprecedented capital, still climbing

Every one of the big four raised its 2026 guidance after Q2, and the guidance points to a stronger second half.

$720–745bn

2026 hyperscaler capex guidance — Alphabet, Amazon, Meta, Microsoft

TMT Finance, 18 Aug 2026, from Q2 2026 earnings calls. All four revised upward.

≈$835bn

The same, including Oracle’s FY27 guidance

Alphabet $195–205bn · Amazon ≈$220bn · Meta $130–145bn · Microsoft ≈$175bn on a lease-accounting basis.

$301bn

Spent by the big four in the first half of 2026 alone

Company filings. That is $1.65bn a day, including weekends.

2× Apollo

This year alone spends more than twice the entire Apollo programme — $309bn over thirteen years, in today’s money

The Manhattan Project’s ≈$30bn is spent in under two weeks.

The pace

Speed, not just size

The fastest-accelerating investment cycle on record

The buildout is adding roughly 0.85 percentage points of GDP share every year — nearly twice the peak pace of the 2002–05 housing boom. It is the headline number to lead with, because nobody can argue with it.

0.85pp of GDP share added per year

≈2× the peak pace of the 2002–05 housing boom

$1.65bn spent every day by the big four, weekends included

The line to use
The largest capital programme ever undertaken by private companies, and the fastest-accelerating investment cycle on record.

The opening

Communities are saying no to data centres — fast

This is the half that matters commercially. Opposition has surged in both parties this year, and every tracker is moving the same way.

Annenberg / SSRS

1,320 US adults · ±3.5pp · fielded 16 Jun – 19 Jul 2026

49%61%

Opposed to new data centres in their area — 44% strongly, against 14% supporting. The 12-point jump was the largest shift on any AI question they measure. Bipartisan: 69% of Democrats, 54% of Republicans, 53% of independents.

Embold Research / Heatmap Pro

2,045 registered voters · ±2.3pp · fielded 8–13 Aug 2026

42%75%

Opposed to a data centre near where they live — 61% strongly. Measured from 42% in August 2025, through 51% in February and 70% in May 2026.

Opposition to a local data centre, % opposed

Embold / Heatmap Pro — registered voters
Annenberg / SSRS — US adults

Two independent instruments, same direction. Opposition to a local data centre, percentage opposed.

Show as a table

Series	Point	Opposed
Embold / Heatmap Pro	Aug 2025	42%
Embold / Heatmap Pro	Feb 2026	51%
Embold / Heatmap Pro	May 2026	70%
Embold / Heatmap Pro	Aug 2026	75%
Annenberg / SSRS	Earlier wave	49%
Annenberg / SSRS	Jun–Jul 2026	61%

Moratoriums

41 of 50

US states with an active data-centre ban or moratorium, at state or local level

As of 17 September 2026. Only Alaska, Hawaii, West Virginia and Wyoming have none.

294

Local moratoriums and bans passed January–July 2026 alone

Four times the total for all of 2025.

374

Cumulative count, Wells Fargo

Report dated 11 September 2026.

The line to use

“More than 370 moratoriums, across 41 states, four times last year’s total.”

Our market

The backlash created a market, and we are built for it

The boom shows what AI is worth. The backlash shows why it has to arrive in a different form.

Unprecedented capital is going into centralised AI capacity.
Communities are rejecting it at an accelerating rate — 41 states, four times last year’s bans, 61% opposition and rising in both parties.
So a government that wants what AI does cannot get it by hosting a data centre, and increasingly cannot get it by permitting one either.
We are the form factor that sits below every threshold being drawn — no rezoning hearing, no developer, no shell company, no undisclosed end user.

That is a market the opposition created — and every new moratorium makes it bigger.

Sources

Sources, with dates