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A pro-data center party took place in Washington D.C. on Saturday night, as opposition to data center construction has intensified across the country.
An invitation to the event on Partiful said: "In light of the bipartisan psychosis over AI data centers, it’s about time that the people who haven’t lost their minds get together and celebrate the glory of American compute."
Videos posted on social media showed the party in full swing, complete with a DJ booth and dance floor. One X user wrote that the event had "a generative AI photo booth, AI themed cocktails."
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At one point, protesters appeared to crash the party. One female protester took to the stage and shouted to the crowd "thank you for using all the water" and "you’re killing the world," as party-goers chanted "USA!"
The protester was eventually seen being removed from the stage.
As data center construction accelerates, the debate over how and where the facilities should be built is expected to remain a growing political and environmental issue.
After the disruption, Adam Thierer from the R Street Institute took to the stage to say: "You know who doesn’t believe in freedom, is the freaks who were just up here charging the stage," the Washington Sun reported.
As demand for AI computing has boomed, data centers have become a growing source of tension over their enormous demands for power, water and land.
Casey Given, the CEO of Young Voices and one of the event’s organizers, told Newsweek in an emailed statement that he and the fellow organizers held the party as a "celebration of technology" as they were "dismayed by how one side was dominating the data center conversation with hysteria instead of reason."
Given cited benefits of data centers including tax revenue and economic development, innovation and "the fight against China."
"If we were data center lobbyists, we would certainly take a different tone, but we're not. The three of us are fanboys who are proud to cheer on American innovation and freedom," he said.
Another of the event organizers, Jonas Du, a writer at technology and politics publication Pirate Wires, told Newsweek in an emailed statement that he organized the event "amid the bipartisan freakout over AI data centers."
"AI progress is the number one driver of American economic growth. Done right, the facilities have the potential to transform communities by creating jobs, increasing local tax revenue, and supporting the reindustrialization of America," he said.
He argued that concerns including noise pollution, rising electricity rates and falling property values were "surmountable issues" and that the solution wasn't to ban new data centers.
Du said one goal of the event was to show that opposition to data centers "is by no means universal," arguing that the turnout demonstrated a "healthy and thriving pro-AI, pro-data center, and pro-innovation consensus among many young professionals."
Responding to the protesters, Du said: "I have no respect for people who make their case through interruptions that violate the free speech rights of others."
The Party
"Data After Dark: A Pro-Data Center Party" was held at the self-described "Bitcoin bar," PubKey in D.C.
More than a thousand people had signed up to attend through the Partiful invitation, though it is not clear how many ultimately attended.
Young Voices, Pirate Wires and The Compute Optimist were listed on a flyer as the organizations behind the party. The event was sponsored by several think tanks, technology advocacy groups and organizations promoting the expansion of computing infrastructure.
The event featured themed cocktails with names inspired by the data center industry, one of the organizers wrote on X.
These included the Loudoun County Iced Tea, a reference to the Virginia county at the heart of the region’s "Data Center Alley," as well as the SMRtini and the Closed-loop Spritz.
Who Were the Event Organizers?
The event was organized by Du of Pirate Wires; Ed Tarnowski, a technology policy fellow at the free-market R Street Institute who has launched the Substack publication The Compute Optimist; and Casey Given, the CEO of Young Voices, a nonprofit that trains and promotes young pro-liberty commentators.
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Tarnowski and Du appeared in a video filmed at the event, in which a reporter asked attendees why they loved data centers.
"This is our industrial revolution," Tarnowski said. "AI is poised to deliver benefits that we couldn't imagine," he said, adding that technological progress was reliant on American "dominance of data centers."
He also touted the "national security benefits" of data centers, particularly their importance to the U.S. in maintaining a technological edge over China.
Du also appeared in the video, and said: "The only way we can get young people and everyday Americans feeling more optimistic about the economy and the future of the country and the American dream is by growing our economy and increasing our innovation rate. And data centers power AI, which is the number one thing driving that right now."
"We should use common sense as to where we built them and how we build them, but no question we need to build more," he added.
Along with the protesters who expressed their displeasure in person, the event also sparked backlash on social media.
While one X user went so far as to say they wished the party would be set on fire with attendees inside, others expressed more temperate criticisms that hosting a glitzy D.C. cocktail party in support of data centers would not help ordinary Americans get on board.
Responding to the criticisms that the party was out of touch, Du told Newsweek: "We are not trying to talk down to ordinary Americans. To the contrary, we hope the party inspired folks working in the pro-tech space to collaborate and come up with new strategies on how to convey our message to Americans across the country. It's also OK to just have a party—everyone had a blast."
Data Center Debate Heats Up
The U.S. is in the midst of a boom of data centers, which are large facilities that house the computer servers and other equipment needed to store and process vast amounts of digital information.
There are at least 4,000 operational facilities nationwide and some 3,000 more planned or under construction.
But the expansion has faced growing opposition over the facilities’ demands for resources and their proximity to residential areas. A Gallup poll found that around 70 percent of Americans are opposed to data centers being built in their area.
The issue has increasingly become a political flashpoint, as opposition to data centers has spread across party lines, even as the Trump administration promotes their expansion as essential to the U.S. race for AI dominance.
Contact Newsweek editors on this story: Ben Kelly, James Debens and Cristina Diciu.
Update, 09/29/2026 11:51 a.m. ET: this article was updated with comment from Casey Given, the CEO of Young Voices.
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