'We Will Fight to Our Very Last Breath:' Township Leaders Vow to Fight Nuclear AI Data Center
Account
Log in
Subscribe
Navigation
Home
About
RSS
Support/FAQ
Podcast
FOIA Forum Archive
Merch
Advertise
Privacy
Contact Us/Tips
Follow us
Twitter<br>Bluesky<br>Mastodon<br>Instagram<br>TikTok<br>Facebook<br>RSS
Advertisement
•
Go ad free
News<br>'We Will Fight to Our Very Last Breath:' Township Leaders Vow to Fight Nuclear AI Data Center
Matthew Gault
Jun 22, 2026<br>at 11:24 AM
Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer and a proposed nuclear weapons AI data center in Michigan have earned the ire of community leaders.
Stargate ground breaking ceremony. Oracle photo via Instagram.
Board members of a small township in Michigan agreed to “fight to our very last breath” against an AI data center planned in their community. America’s nuclear scientists and the University of Michigan want to build a massive data center in Ypsilanti Township, Michigan. If built, the data center will, among other things, run simulations to help America build nuclear weapons.<br>The residents of Ypsilanti Township overwhelmingly oppose the construction of the data center and voiced their opposition to the computer warehouse during a public board meeting on June 16. In a show of support that’s often rare from local leaders in communities with data centers, Ypsilanti Township’s board vowed to fight UofM and Los Alamos National Laboratory, which is partnering with the university, with everything they had.
Throughout most of the three hour board meeting, a photograph from a data center groundbreaking in nearby Saline Township was projected onto a wall behind the board. The photo showed a grinning Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer standing in line with Oracle CEO Clay Magouyrk. It was taken at the June 1 groundbreaking of an Oracle and OpenAI data center in nearby Saline Township, one of several Stargate projects. Saline Township is a community of only 2,300 people and the fight against the data center was so contentious that the Township treasurer resigned in tears during a public meeting in May.
View this post on Instagram
A post shared by Oracle (@oracle)
During the groundbreaking, a videographer caught Whitmer talking with Magouyrk. In the video Whitmer appeared to tell the billionaire, “We’re used to people saying no, and doing it anyway.” Whitmer’s office has officially denied she said that, but many of the residents of Michigan—including the people of Ypsilanti Township—believe she did.<br>Governor Whitmer had a hot mic moment at the Saline Data Center groundbreaking, where she tells Oracle CEO Clay Magouyrk, “We’re used to people saying f*ck no, and doing it anyway.” I’m old enough to remember when she doxxed Marshall constituents who opposed her BlueOval project. pic.twitter.com/PRFnjGY5l9<br>— Heather Dow (@PatriotPostGirl) June 8, 2026
Cilla Cresswell shot the video of Whitmer and was present at the Ypsilanti Township board meeting on Tuesday. “On June 1 I was standing just to the left, right there,” Creswell said, referring to the photo that loomed behind the board during the meeting. “I was there. I recorded that clip [… ] I was right there. And they want to say it’s fake, but I just want to let you guys know it’s real. You can play it on my camera.”<br>Members of the board and the community referenced the photograph often during the meeting. “You have people in that photograph worth billions of dollars. Not just millions, we’re talking trillions. Soon to be trillionaires. Yet this state, in its zeal to become the data capital of the country, has extended unprecedented tax credits to the richest corporations in the world,” Douglas Winters, a lawyer representing Ypsilanti Township, said in the meeting.<br>“Having to stare at this picture during this meeting has my blood boiling,” said Ypsi resident Laura Witowski. “I did not realize how emotional I would be. The waste of space. The complete lack of regard for humans and animals and for what?”<br>During the hours of community comments, residents stepped forward to voice complaints that have now become common about data centers in America. The people of Ypsilanti Township worried about the rising cost of electricity, how much water the building will use, and how noisy the data center would be once finished.<br>They also called on the Township board to do everything in their power to stop it from even being built. “Put yourselves on the line. Those people will listen to you better than they will listen to us. Please put yourselves, your jobs, and your comfort on the line to stop this for us,” Ypsi resident Jane Wolf said. “Get creative. Tear up the road. Block the road. Break the law. Do whatever you need to do for us. You will be remembered better in history for the job that you did if you can get creative and really put yourselves out there.”<br>Jill Warren, the wife of a Methodist pastor, suggested residents brush up on the OSS’ Simple Sabotage Field Manual. “Simply slow things down...