# Voters Reject Data Centres in 40 of 41 Ballot Measures as an AI Sell-Off Sends Japan's Nikkei Into a Bear Market

The Nikkei fell 6% on Friday to 57,410.91, a day after the Nasdaq dropped 6.4%, as investors questioned whether artificial intelligence spending will survive Democratic control of Congress and local opposition.

- Published: 2026-11-07T05:12:31.983Z
- Canonical: https://polylog.news/2026-11-07/voters-reject-data-centres-in-40-of-41-ballot-measures-as-an
- Publisher: Polylog (Global desk)
- Section: tech
- Sources: [Al Jazeera](https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2026/11/7/how-the-us-midterm-elections-reflected-resistance-to-data-centres), [The Economist](https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2026/11/05/markets-realise-they-hate-americas-blue-wave), [Al Jazeera (video)](https://www.aljazeera.com/video/newsfeed/2026/11/7/protesters-storm-site-of-microsofts-planned-amsterdam-data-centre), [The Nation Thailand](https://www.nationthailand.com/news/world/40073214)

US voters rejected data-centre development in all but one of the 41 local measures on the issue in Tuesday's midterm elections, [Al Jazeera reported](https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2026/11/7/how-the-us-midterm-elections-reflected-resistance-to-data-centres). Other tallies use different counts but show the same result. [Stateline found](https://stateline.org/?p=19037) that the only win for supporters of construction came in Harwood, North Dakota. [404 Media's count, cited by AI Weekly](https://aiweekly.co/alerts/ai-data-centers-lose-38-of-40-plus-us-ballot-measures), said six cities voted to ban new data centres outright.

Equity markets have connected the votes to the national result. [The Economist reports](https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2026/11/05/markets-realise-they-hate-americas-blue-wave) that investors worry Democratic control of Congress will slow the artificial intelligence (AI) boom. On Thursday the Nasdaq fell 6.4%, its worst day since the April 2025 trade-war sell-off, [Morningstar reported](https://www.morningstar.com/markets/global-tech-selloff-spreads-ai-stocks-show-signs-recovery). It recovered 1.1% on Friday but still lost 3.4% for the week.

The selling hit Asian suppliers hardest. Japan's Nikkei 225 closed down about 6% at 57,410.91 on Friday, more than 20% below its June peak, which put it in a technical bear market, [Reuters reported via Yahoo Finance](https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/japan-nikkei-enters-bear-market-023411586.html). South Korea's KOSPI fell 6.02%. Chip and component makers such as Advantest, Kioxia and Rohm led the decline, and Bloomberg said traders questioned whether AI infrastructure spending will earn enough to justify it.

The opposition is not only American. Activists [stormed the site of a planned Microsoft data centre in Amsterdam](https://www.aljazeera.com/video/newsfeed/2026/11/7/protesters-storm-site-of-microsofts-planned-amsterdam-data-centre), and [The Nation Thailand reported](https://www.nationthailand.com/news/world/40073214) that protests over data-centre expansion and its environmental costs are spreading across Europe. The objections are similar on both continents: electricity prices, water use and land.

## What this means

Two constraints now act on the AI build-out at the same time. Local permitting limits where facilities can be built and how much power they can draw. Rising US rates raise the cost of the debt and private credit that increasingly fund the spending. Component suppliers in Japan and Korea carry the most operating leverage, because a small cut in hyperscaler orders produces a large fall in their earnings. The consensus reads the ballot results as a national brake. A more likely outcome is that spending moves to jurisdictions that still welcome it, such as Gulf states, parts of Asia and US states with surplus power, while the rate path does more of the slowing. The precedent is the telecom capital-spending boom of 1999 and 2000. Equipment suppliers fell first and furthest, well before carriers cut their budgets. The desk's read is that over the next few months hyperscalers keep their spending guidance, while supplier valuations stay under pressure and financing spreads widen. Nvidia's results on November 17 are the next test. Strong Nvidia guidance alongside narrower spreads on technology debt would prove this read wrong.

## What to watch

- Nvidia's third-quarter results on November 17. They are the clearest measure of whether hyperscaler orders are still rising.
- Spreads on new bonds issued by large technology companies. Wider spreads would show that the funding limit is starting to bind before demand falls.
- State-level moratoriums or power-pricing rules for data centres. They would turn local votes into binding capacity limits.