Opponents of data centers were among the biggest winners of the Democrats' landslide wins in the U.S. midterm elections, pointing to a shifting public mood on artificial intelligence (AI) and, investors said, a possible slowdown of the boom that has propelled U.S. economic growth and stock markets. The size and breadth of the Democratic wave were still coming into focus. But in gubernatorial races in Texas and Georgia, Democrats who campaigned in part on a moratorium on data center development won offices that the party had not held for decades. Their victories hand political heft to the backlash against the projects, which are at the heart of the AI boom but are loud, thirsty for water, hungry for electricity and increasingly unpopular with their neighbors, investors said. Investors say the results are likely to usher in tougher regulation and could ripple across financial markets where AI stocks were falling on Wednesday; big bets have already started to wobble due to concerns about spending and overcapacity. "In our view, the significance of these midterm elections is more like a refe