Social Media Smashes Whitmer After Data Center Groundbreaking

(Source: MIRS.news, Published 06/02/2026) Gov. Gretchen Whitmer attended a groundbreaking for the Oracle Stargate data center in Saline with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Oracle Co-CEO Clay Magouyrk on Monday, and was excoriated on social media.

On the heels of the Mackinac Policy Conference that was dominated by business and government leaders crowing the benefits and positives surrounding the introduction of data centers in Michigan, Whitmer was hit with the full force of the two-thirds of people who oppose data centers in their communities.

Whitmer said the site would create 450 permanent jobs and 2,500 construction jobs while the site was being built.

“I’ve been very clear with companies that want to call Michigan home. Human intelligence cannot be replaced. AI must always be a tool to bolster human intelligence, not the other way around,” Whitmer said.

She said they were putting guardrails in place with the data centers, making sure they create jobs. However, there are expected to be large job losses from white-collar sectors across the job market as AI replaces those people.

She said that OpenAI was providing 400,000 college students in Michigan free access to the ChatGPT Codex program, which is an AI research assistant that can cost about $20 per month and be used to write programs and code.

The online hate directed toward Whitmer didn’t come from just one political direction. The social media platform X, which is home to many conservatives, saw a post from Michigan Public Reporter Colin Jackson become a hotbed of attacks for people interacting with the viral post.

Many of the progressives and Democrats who are present on Reddit and posting in the Michigan subreddit were going after her as someone who had turned her back on the party, stating she was a “sellout” and expressing their disappointment towards the data center move.

There were also many in the Democratic Party centered on BlueSky that were going after her for standing alongside Altman and Magouyrk.

Data centers were a dominant topic at the Mackinac Policy Conference, with many of the panels and panelists touting AI and data centers.

Whitmer had also called the $500 billion six-site OpenAI Stargate data center project in Washtenaw County the largest one-time investment in the history of Michigan.