The Scottish National Party (SNP) government have voted down a moratorium on the hugely controversial plans for up to 24 hyperscale data centres in Scotland. At Holyrood, the seat of the Scottish parliament, the Scottish Green motion for a temporary halt to all planned construction was defeated by Labour and SNP amendments.
Instead, new data centres with a power capacity exceeding 50 megawatts will now be required to submit environmental impact assessments during the planning process. As campaigners pointed out, EIAs are completed by companies, mostly paid for by data centre developers themselves. Therefore, they are worse than useless in providing a genuine investigation into the massive impact these will have on local communities.
Hannah-Mary Goodlad – SNP minister for public finance – insisted: “We do not agree there should be a moratorium.“That is not necessary, it is not appropriate. It would send the wrong message to anyone looking to invest in Scotland.”
By prioritising the interests of multi-billion dollar US tech companies, the SNP are aiding big business. After all, it’s the hyperscalers who are largely and ultimately the beneficiaries of these projects.
US president Trump has accused those who oppose the rapid development of AI of being “revolutionaries” “We’re leading China in AI.” And frankly, I want to keep it that way, because whoever wins AI wins,” he said.
The editor of the National – an SNP and independence-supporting newspaper – commented after the vote: “The SNP’s position on this issue looks remarkably similar to Reform’s, or the Tories’.” They could have added to that list the interests of Trump and the tech billionaires.
The overwhelming evidence of the detrimental impact that AI is having on energy costs, colossal water use for cooling and the millions of jobs under threat is crystal clear.
It also follows the recent resignation of a researcher who resigned from Anthropic, arguing that “the people building AI earnestly believe that it could kill us all by the end of the decade”.
With more than one-third of all business investment in the US currently going into software and data centre construction, there is a huge bubble being created that will eventually burst, with devastating consequences for workers and the economy.
AI, left under the control of the billionaire tech companies, is a jobs killer, not a jobs creator. An estimated 300 million jobs will be lost or be significantly impacted. Dario Amodei, CEO of Anthropic, has predicted that AI could wipe out half of white-collar jobs and push unemployment to 20%.
Whatever the scale of the impact, it’s clear that under capitalism AI is a dangerous development.
Socialists do not oppose AI as such – we argue that technological and scientific advances could be used to cut the working week, without loss of pay. And to make it easier to plan the economy under the control and management of the working class.
But that requires bringing into public ownership of the hyperscalers like Google, Amazon, Apple etc, as well as big business generally. Something the Greens do not argue for.
Over the next three months, the SNP government are planning to draw up national “guidelines” that will “give business but also communities confidence”. How is it possible to do both? You either side with the US tech companies or you side with local communities – you can’t do both.
It’s possible that decisions on data centre construction will not be taken until the completion of the guideline process– but pre-planning will still be allowed to proceed.
It’s time to up the pressure on councillors and MSPs to demand a halt to the hyperscale data centre process.
It’s also clear that the building of a mass working-class party based on the trade unions is essential to offer a real alternative to the parties of capitalism. And that alternative has to be socialism in order to defend jobs, the environment and a future for working-class people.
Socialist Party Scotland says:
- Build mass protests at Holyrood, council planning committees and full council meetings to demand no planning permission for the hyperscale data centres.
- Discuss standing anti-hyperscale data centre candidates in areas affected, alongside trade union and socialist no cuts candidates in Scotland for the council elections in May 2027
- Take the wealth off the billionaires
- Bring the tech corporations into public ownership under democratic workers’ control
- Plan the economy for the billions not the billionaires – fight for socialism