Will the backlash against AI data centres hit quantum computing too?

People aren’t happy about data centres. As interest in AI and its use has dramatically increased in the past couple of years, communities across the world have begun protesting against the massive infrastructure needed to support this technology.

In the US, data centres are popping up in residential areas, their construction has been proposed on protected natural lands and, in places where they have been built, they have caused havoc. These enormous buildings produce a lot of noise and use huge amounts of electricity and water. In some places, utility bills are rising and water taps are running dry. Community after community has risen up to fight data centres in their neighbourhoods. It made me wonder whether that battle will stay limited to AI, or if the scrutiny will come for quantum computing too.

Consider the south side of Chicago. The Illinois Quantum and Microelectronics Park (IQMP), a 128-acre research and development campus that will house facilities of several leading quantum computing firms, is being built there – and it’s not entirely welcomed by its neighbours.

The project broke ground in September 2025 with enthusiastic support from the governor of Illinois, JB Pritzker, and Mayor of Chicago Brandon Johnson. The most notable tenant of the park will be PsiQuantum, which is aiming to build the US’s first utility-scale, error-corrected quantum computer there by the end of the decade, and as early as 2028. Other companies, such as Pasqal, Infleqtion, IBM and Diraq, will also have facilities at the park.