Mark Cuban is urging native governments to barter more durable earlier than approving knowledge facilities, saying cities ought to safe enforceable protections whereas they nonetheless have leverage.
In a sequence of X posts on Monday, the billionaire tech entrepreneur shared a 10-part playbook for communities contemplating their first venture.
His fundamental rule: Each main promise from a developer ought to have a measurable restrict, unbiased oversight, monetary backing, and a sensible treatment whether it is damaged.
# A city’s first knowledge heart: what to require earlier than saying sure
An information heart can convey development employment, tax base, and infrastructure funding. It may possibly additionally impose calls for on electrical energy, water, public providers, and close by neighborhoods that final for many years and outlive…
— Mark Cuban (@mcuban) September 8, 2026
Cuban mentioned cities ought to rent their very own attorneys and technical advisors, assess the venture’s complete deliberate build-out, and impose clear limits on water consumption, noise, backup technology, and infrastructure prices.
He additionally referred to as for upfront decommissioning funds and ensures from financially credible dad or mum corporations.
Cuban paid specific consideration to water use and noise, warning that “closed-loop” cooling methods can nonetheless consume water throughout scorching climate and arguing that typical noise limits might fail to seize the low-frequency hum produced by cooling gear, which has turn out to be emblematic of many complaints about data centers.
## 5. Shield neighbors from noise earlier than the gear is ordered
Noise is now the most typical post-approval grievance and probably the most lively space of litigation, together with proposed class actions in Wisconsin and Mississippi alleging sound carrying greater than a mile previous the…
— Mark Cuban (@mcuban) September 8, 2026
Cuban additionally referred to as for cover in opposition to stranded infrastructure prices if a venture is delayed or deserted. His proposals included upfront decommissioning funds, parent-company ensures, and money escrow or letters of credit score earlier than development begins.
It is not Cuban’s first warning concerning the data-center growth. In July, Cuban mentioned communities ought to aggressively pursue operators who break the legislation or trigger documented harm.
If the info heart breaks the legislation or damages the neighborhood, the neighborhood ought to go after them with every part they’ve.
The AI corporations want the info facilities greater than they want air. Reap the benefits of that truth. Tax the shit out of them in the event that they do any documentable harm. https://t.co/OvaS6tr1zP
— Mark Cuban (@mcuban) July 3, 2026
Later that month, he instructed the “All-In” podcast that technological advances may make a few of at this time’s computing capability redundant, joking that unused knowledge facilities may turn out to be “pickleball courts.”
Public opinion towards knowledge facilities is already dismal. A Gallup ballot carried out in March discovered that 71% of Individuals opposed having one constructed the place they stay, in contrast with 53% who opposed a close-by nuclear power plant.
The Environmental Well being Undertaking says data-center cooling methods and diesel turbines can create a continuing hum audible to close by residents. The group additionally warns that their cooling wants can eat giant quantities of water, worsening water insecurity in areas the place provides are already scarce.
The business’s picture downside has turn out to be potent sufficient to promote beer. Former NFL star Jason Kelce lately starred in a satirical Storage Beer and Liquid Loss of life advert asking individuals to ship their urine to cool AI data centers — a marketing campaign constructed round public concern over their water use.
Cuban described his newest framework as a piece in progress and invited others to contribute. Its message was simple: As soon as a city grants approval, a lot of its negotiating energy is gone.
