New Report Reveals How California's Growing AI Infrastructure Threatens Environmental and Health Equity

Latest report from the Kapor Foundation calls for urgent policy action to protect overburdened communities as data center development accelerates

OAKLAND, Calif., Dec. 9, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- The Kapor Foundation, a philanthropic organization focused on creating a more equitable technology landscape, today released a new report titled, "The Unequal Burden of Data Centers: An Examination of the Environmental and Public Health Impacts on Communities in California", highlighting the environmental and health risks posed by the rapid expansion of artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure across California.

As data centers proliferate to support AI's energy and computing demands, the report warns that their siting patterns and environmental footprints threaten to deepen long-standing inequities – especially in underresourced communities and communities of color already burdened by pollution and disinvestment.

"California is at the center of the AI revolution, but we can't allow technological progress to come at the expense of the very communities that have borne the brunt of environmental injustice for generations," said Dr. Allison Scott, CEO of the Kapor Foundation. "The findings in this report are a call to action. We must ensure that the state's innovation economy is powered not only by clean energy, but by equity, transparency, and accountability."

The report provides an in-depth spatial analysis connecting the locations of data centers with community health and environmental indicators across California. It finds that:

• 82% of operational and planned data centers are located in communities with poor air quality.
• 65% are in areas facing the highest groundwater threat levels.
• 79% are in communities with the highest hazardous waste exposure.

"The findings in this report echo what we see repeatedly across our work: data centers are being concentrated in communities already fighting for clean air, safe water, and relief from hazardous waste," said Abre' Conner, Esq., Director of the Center for Environmental and Climate Justice at the NAACP. "We've challenged these patterns through investigations and lawsuits because the harms are not theoretical – they show up in our case files, in communities with some of the highest asthma rates in the state, and in neighborhoods where residents are already living with the legacy of toxic exposure."

To ground these findings, the report features three case studies from historically overburdened California communities: Bayview-Hunters Point (San Francisco), Del Paso Heights (Sacramento), and Hawthorne (Los Angeles County). These communities have long histories of discriminatory policies, such as redlining, and now face renewed risks from industrial land use decisions tied to AI infrastructure growth.

The report challenges the adequacy of current corporate environmental, social, and governance (ESG) commitments, arguing that they fail to account for the localized burdens of data center development and perpetuate greenwashing narratives.

To prevent further harm and promote sustainable, equitable growth, the Kapor Foundation outlines a policy framework that calls for stronger protections for host communities at both the state and local levels.

For more information and to access the full report, visit: https://kaporfoundation.org/datacenters-envt-health.

About Kapor Foundation

The Kapor Foundation works at the intersection of racial equity and technology to build a more equitable technology sector that benefits all of society. The Kapor Foundation's core focus areas include: expanding access to computer science/AI education pathways, deploying capital to launch and scale responsible, ethical, and gap-closing AI/tech solutions, and advancing policies that mitigate technology's harm and enable equitable opportunity. For more information on the Kapor Foundation and the Kapor Center family of organizations, SMASH and Kapor Capital, visit KaporFoundation.org.

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SOURCE Kapor Foundation