Civil rights groups are increasingly concerned that AI's rapidly spreading physical infrastructure is deepening climate burdens for communities of color.

Why it matters: Massive data centers require vast quantities of water, energy and land. Many of these centers cluster in regions where marginalized communities already face higher levels of air pollution, industrial zoning and climate vulnerability.

• Civil rights groups say these impacts resemble earlier patterns seen with highways, refineries and manufacturing: pollution concentrated where political resistance is weakest and property values are lowest.
• Data centers can also consume millions of gallons of water per day and use as much electricity as a small city, driving up energy and water use costs for poor residents.

Zoom in: A supercomputer data center built by Elon Musk's xAI in Southwest Memphis, a historically Black neighborhood, faces a legal challenge from the NAACP. The group says the site's gas generators are violating the Clean Air Act.

• Nitrogen dioxide pollution near the site has spiked as much as 79%, according to Time, raising the risk of asthma and respiratory illness in a community already burdened by high pollution rates.
• Earlier this year, Brent Mayo of xAI said the data center was adding newer power-generation units that would make it "the lowest-emitting facility in the country." The company also touted on X its progress on a wastewater treatment facility.

In Amarillo, Texas, advocates are fighting what developers call the world's largest AI data center, warning it could drain the Ogallala Aquifer, a shrinking water lifeline for the Texas Panhandle and southern Great Plains.

• Latino residents and rural water advocates fear losing access to groundwater already stretched thin by agriculture and drought. The city's former mayor, working as a community lead on the data center project, says it will use closed-loop cooling that should minimize water usage.

Northern Virginia — site of the world's largest data center hub — is seeing mounting resistance in Loudoun and Prince William counties, where Black families say the build-out is overwhelming their communities.

Near Tucson, Arizona, a proposed "Project Blue" data center could consume millions of gallons of water per year, activists say.

• Beale Infrastructure, the developer behind Project Blue, told Axios that the data center's latest design will use a closed-loop air-cooled system, meaning that it will use no more potable water than a typical office space.
• A planned massive data center in Florida's St. Lucie County is also drawing intense opposition.

What they're saying: "Data centers by design do not have a lot of jobs. It's predatory. They target cities desperate for economic development," LaTricea Adams, CEO of the Memphis-based Young, Gifted & Green, tells Axios.

• "This is the Wild West. There's not even case law yet. What happens now will dictate the future of how data centers are regulated."

President Trump will allow exports of Nvidia's H200 chips to China — and the U.S. government will get a 25% cut from future sales, the president said yesterday.

Why it matters: Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has been pressing the White House to allow the U.S. to export advanced chips to China, arguing that it'll help the U.S. win the AI race.

Driving the news: Trump said on Truth Social that he'll allow Nvidia to sell H200 chips — the generation of chips before its current, more advanced Blackwell lineup — to China, with the U.S. government pocketing a quarter of the revenue.

• He said he would apply "the same approach to AMD, Intel, and other GREAT American Companies."

State of play: It's not dissimilar to a deal from earlier this year in which Nvidia and AMD agreed to give the U.S. 15% of the sales of its less advanced H20 chip to China in exchange for export licenses.

Threat level: American defense hawks fear that China could use Nvidia chips to advance its military ambitions.

• Trump said yesterday that the sales will be subject to "conditions that allow for continued strong National Security."
• The blockade remains in place for Nvidia's current generation of Blackwell chips, which will be replaced in the second half of 2026 by even more advanced Rubin chips.
• Huang said recently he was unsure if China would want the older chips.

What they're saying: "We applaud President Trump's decision to allow America's chip industry to compete to support high paying jobs and manufacturing in America," Nvidia said in a statement. "Offering H200 to approved commercial customers, vetted by the Department of Commerce, strikes a thoughtful balance that is great for America."

President Trump said yesterday that he'll sign an executive order this week to promote "one rulebook" for AI, rather than a patchwork of state laws.

Why it matters: It's another sign that Trump wants to promote AI with as little regulation as possible — an approach that could set up a clash with his own MAGA supporters.

What he's saying: "There must be only One Rulebook if we are going to continue to lead in AI," Trump wrote in a Truth Social post.

• "We are beating ALL COUNTRIES at this point in the race, but that won't last long if we are going to have 50 States, many of them bad actors, involved in RULES and the APPROVAL PROCESS ... AI WILL BE DESTROYED IN ITS INFANCY!"
• "You can't expect a company to get 50 Approvals every time they want to do something. THAT WILL NEVER WORK!"

Yes, but: Critics of efforts to preempt state AI laws, including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, say President Trump lacks the authority to block state legislation.

• "Congress could, theoretically, preempt states through legislation," DeSantis said in a post on X. "The problem is that Congress hasn't proposed any coherent regulatory scheme but instead just wanted to block states from doing anything for 10 years, which would be an AI amnesty."

What we're watching: The executive order isn't likely to try to block state AI laws outright.

Keep reading.

• Meta is reportedly working on a new frontier AI model, codenamed Avocado, that could be out in the first quarter of 2026 and could be proprietary, as opposed to the open source Llama. (CNBC)
• The creator of ICEBlock, an app designed to track immigration raids, sued the Trump administration, saying officials unconstitutionally coerced Apple into removing the tool. (Axios)
• Paramount launched a hostile takeover bid to buy Warner Bros. Discovery with an all-cash, $30-per-share offer, and Jared Kushner is among those trying to secure the needed financing. (Axios)
• Apple chip boss Johny Srouji told employees he has no plans to leave the company anytime soon, following a report he was considering an exit. (Bloomberg)

One thing on my list to watch over the holidays is "Come See Me in the Good Light," a film documenting the impact of a cancer diagnosis on Colorado poet laureate Andrea Gibson and how they spent their final days.