> This comes at a time when there is huge pushback against all AI companies due to, in large part, ethical concerns.

I don't think ethics is fueling the outrage. It's people not wanting big noisy data centers close to their communities, driving up utility costs. Nobody would care if these things stood in Africa. Just like people don't want wind turbines close by but have no issue with them being abroad or in $remote_location or uranium mines polluting a far away country.