Startup tracks city council meetings to help data center companies avoid local opposition

Hamlet's AI-driven analysis of public meetings offers a real-time gauge of community sentiment toward data centers and other controversial developments.

By LineZotpaper

Published21 October 2026

Read Time2 min

A startup called Hamlet is scraping video recordings of thousands of city council meetings across the United States, tagging comments as friendly or hostile to data center projects, and selling the intelligence to developers and investors seeking communities where projects face the least resistance.

Data-center companies are paying for a new kind of market research: real-time intelligence on which communities are most likely to welcome or reject their projects. Startup Hamlet has parsed tens of thousands of city council meetings by scraping local governments' video recordings and tagging comments as friendly or hostile to a potential development, CEO Sunil Rajaraman told Semafor.

Among Hamlet's paying customers are a large fund that finances data centers and a data-center developer, both looking for early signs of a moratorium or other opposition. "Where there might be more favorable political views" may well determine where future projects get built, Rajaraman said.

Hamlet's other customers include real estate developers, political action committees, and retailers. The company on Tuesday launched new rankings for where cities and counties stand on hot-button issues like zoning laws and pickleball, as well as a portal allowing users to look up what their elected officials have said. Among large local governments, Corpus Christi, Texas ranked No. 1 in speakers' opposition to data centers.

Rajaraman framed the service as a public good: "This is public sphere data. The data needs to be out there so America can make better decisions."

The appetite for such data reflects the growing financial risk that community sentiment poses to data center projects, as a national groundswell of anti-data-center activism has turned local politics into a key factor in site selection.

Analysis

Why This Matters

The tool gives developers a data-driven way to bypass communities likely to resist, potentially concentrating data centers in areas with less political power or weaker environmental oversight.
For local governments and activists, the transparency cuts both ways: they can see what their own officials have said, but developers can also target the path of least resistance.
The service signals that community opposition has become a material financial risk for the data center industry, on par with energy costs or tax incentives.

Background

Hamlet scrapes public video recordings of city council meetings, using artificial intelligence to categorize statements as supportive, neutral or opposed to data center projects. The data is sold to companies that finance, develop or otherwise depend on data center construction. The broader context is a national wave of grassroots opposition to data centers, driven by concerns over noise, water use, power demand, and environmental impact, which has led some jurisdictions to impose moratoriums or stricter zoning rules.

Key Perspectives

Data center developers and investors: The tool helps them identify communities where projects are likeliest to receive approval, reducing the time and money spent fighting hostile local politics. Local activists and residents: The same transparency that lets developers avoid hostile towns can also help residents track their own elected officials' positions and organize more effectively. Critics and skeptics: The service could deepen inequities by steering polluting or resource-intensive projects toward less politically organized communities, and it raises questions about how "public sphere data" is repackaged for private gain.

What to Watch

Whether more jurisdictions respond by tightening zoning or declaring moratoriums, making Hamlet's data even more valuable to developers.
How the company expands its issue tracking beyond data centers to other controversial projects like mines, factories, or renewable energy installations.
Whether public records advocates raise concerns about the commercial repackaging of government meeting data without direct consent from speakers.

Sources

Tech firms monitor city council meetings to track data center sentiment · Semafor

Checked

10 claims in this story checked against 1 source: 6 supported.

Show each claim

Not in the sourcesHamlet’s analysis is AI-driven.
Partly supportedHamlet offers a real-time gauge of community sentiment toward data centers and other controversial developments.Semafor: “Investors backing these projects are also obvious customers for a real-time feed into Americans’ growing antipathy toward data centers.”
SupportedHamlet tracks meetings to help data-center companies find communities where projects face the least resistance.Semafor: “Data-center companies are ponying up to find out which communities will resist them the least.”
SupportedHamlet parsed tens of thousands of council meetings by scraping local-government videos and tagging comments as friendly or hostile to a potential project.Semafor: “Startup Hamlet has parsed tens of thousands of city council meetings by scraping local governments’ video recordings, tagging comments as friendly or hostile to a potential project.”
Partly supportedHamlet is selling its intelligence to investors as well as developers.Semafor: “Investors backing these projects are also obvious customers for a real-time feed into Americans’ growing antipathy toward data centers.”
SupportedA large fund that finances data centers and a data-center developer are paying customers looking for early signs of a moratorium.Semafor: “CEO Sunil Rajaraman told Semafor that a large fund that finances data centers and a data-center developer are among its paying customers, looking for whiffs of a moratorium.”
SupportedRajaraman said, “Where there might be more favorable political views” may determine where future projects get built.Semafor: ““Where there might be more favorable political views” may well determine where future projects get built, Rajaraman said.”
SupportedHamlet launched new rankings on Tuesday for cities’ and counties’ positions on issues including zoning and pickleball, and a portal for checking elected officials’ statements.Semafor: “The company on Tuesday launched new rankings for where cities and counties stand on a host of hot-button issues (ranging from zoning laws to pickleball), and a portal for people to look up what their elected officials have said.”
SupportedCorpus Christi ranked No. 1 among large local governments in speakers’ opposition to data centers.Semafor: “(Among large local governments, Corpus Christi, Texas ranked No. 1 in speakers’ opposition to data centers.)”
Partly supportedCommunity sentiment has become a growing financial risk and local politics a key factor in site selection.Semafor: “The appetite for such data shows the lengths to which the tech industry is going to find where projects are most likely to go through, in the face of a national groundswell of anti-data center activism that has turned community sentiment into a financial risk.”