On the contrary, companies building things is *constantly* under scrutiny for local building plans. That’s literally what the NIMBY / YIMBY movements are all about - using political clout and power (especially including voting) to affect what can and cannot be built.

Yeah, and who gets to vote on bailing these companies out when their finances collapse and picking up the collateral damage? OpenAI is already normalizing the eventual bailout.

This is false - the way these data centers are financed and built is a direct result of the financial and legal systems established and enforced by our government. I do not say this to argue for more or less construction, but to point out that it is as much a creation of our society as the NHS is of the UK.

Doesn't sound too free to me

A free society, with a masked police force.

Publicly traded companies with shareholder voting are socialist now?

Like, here's the purely greed-driven capitalist argument: "Why are you throwing my investment away on a specious gamble that we can 100x America's datacenter buildout with a capex spend that would dwarf the actual government?"

Socialism is the way for people to be free. Extreme capitalism is the way for the ultra rich and their companies to be free.