Virginia voter support for data center projects crashed from 69% in 2023 to 35% in a new Washington Post-Schar School poll, as Prince William County dropped its legal fight to build a massive 2,100-acre data center campus that would have been one of the largest in the world. A circuit court and state appeals court had already voided the project's zoning on procedural grounds, ending years of litigation. This reflects a national shift: 48 data center projects were blocked or delayed across the U.S. in 2025 preventing $156 billion in development, with Virginia now home to 57 active opposition groups—more than any other state. The broader tension is that Northern Virginia already hosts enormous data center capacity (over 4,900 MW) that feeds trans-Atlantic and U.S. East Coast internet traffic, making its proximity valuable to major tech companies despite community resistance.