A large data center uses up to 5 million gallons a day, equal to the daily needs of a town of 10,000 to 50,000 people. And politicians are responding: Mississauga, Canada’s seventh-largest city, voted last month to temporarily pause new AI data center construction. In the US, data centers have become a political issue ahead of the November midterms. In Ohio , both Republican nominee for governor, Vivek Ramaswamy and Democratic candidate for governor Amy Acton have both pledged to restrict data centers. The country has about one-tenth the number of data centers as the US: 449, compared to 5,427 in the US.