The Data Center Frontier: AI Infrastructure & Resistance

This free virtual roundtable brings together Indigenous land defenders, scholar-activists, and grassroots organizers to examine how the rapid expansion of AI and cloud infrastructure is driving new waves of fossil fuel dependence, mineral extraction, land dispossession, and environmental injustice. Far from the immaterial “cloud” promised by Silicon Valley, data centers are vast, resource-intensive industrial facilities whose growth is reshaping landscapes, energy systems, and political struggles across North America.

Drawing lessons from Indigenous-led fights against pipelines, mining projects, and other forms of extractive infrastructure—as well as successful campaigns to block data centers—speakers will share insights from the frontlines of the data center frontier, and explore how movements across sites and issues can build durable solidarities in the face of a rapidly expanding digital-industrial regime.