Tech's Push to Be the Next Public Utility

Amazon didn't ask permission to become critical infrastructure. They built AWS until enough of the economy depended on it that regulation became almost impossible. You can't turn off the internet's backbone. Now the same playbook is running with AI and data centers. Build the infrastructure everywhere. Create dependency at scale. Make yourself essential to healthcare, finance, government, and defense before anyone agrees you should be. Then negotiate from a position where shutting you down costs more than regulating you. The data center fights happening in communities right now — zoning battles, water usage protests, grid capacity fights — aren't about data centers. They're about who controls the next utility layer before the rules are written. Historical utilities — power, water, telecom — eventually got regulated because they became too essential to leave unaccountable. The window between "essential" and "regulated" is where the real money gets made. That window is open right now. Who should have the authority to decide whether AI infrastructure is a public utility — and what happens if we don't decide before the decision gets made for us?