AUSTIN, Texas, Aug. 24 (Our Texas Times) — Humans First, chaired by former Tea Party leader Amy Kremer, plans to launch a nationwide bus tour in Austin on Sept. 12, 2026, to oppose the rapid expansion of artificial intelligence data centers.
The group calls the tour the “Data Center Revolt.” It says the campaign will travel through the South and up the East Coast, with stops in Washington, D.C., and Northern Virginia, before ending in Silicon Valley, California. Humans First has not released a full itinerary or identified a venue for the Austin launch.
The campaign is aimed less at changing how AI software works than at changing how the facilities that power it are approved, financed and overseen.
What is a data center?
A data center is a facility that houses computer servers and related equipment. AI systems rely on large numbers of specialized processors, which require substantial electricity, cooling systems and physical space.
The buildings can affect local planning decisions because they may require new power infrastructure, water for cooling, roads, transmission lines and large parcels of land. Noise from cooling equipment and backup generators can also become a local concern.
Humans First says communities should receive more information about proposed facilities and have a stronger role in decisions about them. The group has pointed to possible effects on infrastructure costs, utility bills, water demand, noise, land use and the environment.
Those concerns are positions advanced by the organization and its organizers. The supplied records do not independently establish the extent of those effects in particular communities or tie the Austin event to a specific local data-center project.
What does the group want?
Humans First says it does not support a blanket state or federal ban on data centers. Instead, Kremer has described the campaign as a push for local transparency and community representation rather than a national moratorium.
The group has characterized the growth of data centers as an “unaccountable” buildout and called it an “unacceptable infringement on our liberty,” according to Reuters’ account of the organization’s messaging.
That approach places the campaign in a broader debate over who should decide where data centers are built: local governments and residents, state officials, federal agencies or the companies developing the facilities.
Why Austin and Texas matter
Austin is the planned starting point, and Humans First has described Texas as central to the data-center debate. Texas also had the largest number of events in the group’s July 18 national protest effort, with 18 protests, Reuters reported.
Reuters counted 142 protests in 42 states on July 18. Earlier reports referred to at least 125 planned locations. The difference may reflect the timing of the counts or different methods for tallying events.
The September tour is a continuation of that organizing effort. It follows a June announcement of the July protest and a July 9 report that more than 50 demonstrations were planned in 22 states.
Questions about the organization’s origins and funding
The group’s launch has also drawn scrutiny from critics who question its political and financial origins.
Fox News Digital reported that California public records showed Oliver Zhang and Arunim Agarwal incorporated Humans First in January while they were staff members at the Center for AI Safety, an organization that studies risks associated with artificial intelligence. The supplied material does not include copies of those incorporation records.
The same reporting connected the Center for AI Safety to funding from Open Philanthropy, founded by Dustin Moskovitz. The supplied material does not include financial records confirming the amounts or terms of that relationship.
Kremer told Fox News Digital that Humans First received an initial startup loan from the Center for AI Safety and is repaying it. She said the group does not disclose individual donors and denied that Humans First received money from Open Philanthropy.
The supplied material does not include responses from the Center for AI Safety, Open Philanthropy, Zhang or Agarwal to the claims about the organization’s formation or funding.
For now, Humans First’s stated objective is clear: to turn local objections to AI infrastructure into a national political campaign. What remains unclear is the tour’s full route, how its demands will be applied in individual communities and whether the organization’s funding questions will affect its credibility with opponents of data-center expansion.
