Many of the largest technology companies weren’t prepared for the opposition to data centers that has swept the country over the last year. To placate critics, the companies walked back secrecy arrangements, offered greater benefits to local communities and said they would pay more for electricity.

It didn’t matter. Even elected officials who had once welcomed the giant data centers, which tech companies are building for their artificial intelligence work, were turning against them. The election swung harder against data centers than polls predicted. In 40 out of 41 local ballot initiatives across the country, citizens voted to limit or prevent data center development.

Still there are early signs that the Blue Wave that brought Democrats to power around the country will not send data center construction — and with it the U.S. economy — off a cliff.

One analysis, from the investment bank Bernstein, estimated that in the most extreme scenario, 9 percent of projects that would have probably been built will no longer break ground. More realistically, they said, only 2 to 4 percent of future data centers will be canceled nationwide.