A protester crashed a pro-data center party in Washington, D.C., on Saturday, claiming the technology is “killing the world.” The woman interrupted the “Data After Dark” event at Pubkey, directing middle fingers at the crowd and shouting about the industry’s water use.
“Thank you for using all of our water!” and “You’re killing the world,” the protester shouted as she made obscene gestures at attendees. The party was hosted by three self-proclaimed data center “fanboys” and brought together more than 600 people to show support for data center infrastructure, according to Fox News Digital.
Party co-host and Young Voices CEO Casey Givens told Fox News Digital that the protester initially approached him asking to give a toast in support of data centers. After he refused, she jumped onstage and attempted to grab the microphone from co-host Jonas Du. Security removed her, and the crowd responded by chanting, “USA, USA, USA.”
“I organized the party along with my co-hosts because the three of us were dismayed by how one side was dominating the data center conversation with hysteria instead of reason,” Givens said. “We wanted to push back by throwing a celebration of technology and benefits of data centers — locally in terms of tax revenue and economic development, and nationally in terms of innovation and the fight against China,” he added.
The event featured themed cocktails such as the “Loudoun County Iced Tea,” named after the Northern Virginia county that handles more than 70% of global internet traffic across roughly 250 data centers, according to the county’s website. Posters proclaiming “Virginia is for Servers” and “Visit Loudoun County, VA” were also featured, according to Patch and the Washington Sun.
More than 1,000 people RSVPed for the event, and the Washington Sun reported that hundreds attended. Reason reporter Reem Ibrahim interviewed attendees about their support for data centers. Most touted the reported economic benefits of the controversial projects.
The party was hosted by writers Ed Tarnowski and Jonas Du of The Compute Optimist and Pirate Wires, respectively, along with Casey Givens, the CEO of the nonprofit Young Voices. Gizmodo and Tech Squared expanded on the hosts’ links to tech-focused venture capital firms, think tanks and other organizations, according to Patch.
The Partiful page for the event read: “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.” Protesters and hecklers periodically interrupted the event and were escorted out by security, according to multiple reports.
Some local Northern Virginia opponents of widespread data-center development said the party “actively mock[s]” their communities. Data centers power artificial intelligence by housing thousands of high-performance computers that store, process and analyze data, enabling AI systems to be trained and operate.
President Donald Trump has pushed for a rapid buildout of data centers as part of his broader AI agenda, contending the U.S. must stay ahead of China in the global AI race and that resistance to the projects gives Beijing an advantage. “If you want to go through poverty, crime and squalor, I would say don’t approve of data centers,” Trump said from the Oval Office Sept. 4.
Trump boasted about American AI supremacy over China during an address to the United Nations General Assembly in New York Tuesday, using his newly minted term for the technology, “superintelligence.” “Every major new technology brings challenges, and superintelligence is no exception,” said Trump. “Whoever wins superintelligence wins. That’s the group that wins. And we’re leading now over China by a lot and everyone else. And we’re going to keep it that way.”
