COLUMBUS, Ohio — Both frontrunners for Ohio governor are adamant about pausing the data center boom, but each is invested in and financially benefiting from the tech hubs they seek to regulate.
Outside the I-X Center Substation in Cleveland, activists and local officials rallied against the rapid expansion of data centers.
"I don't think the incentives line up pretty well for the everyday average Ohioan who has to put up with higher utility bills, who has to put up with dirty air, who has to put up with, basically, building out our water infrastructure," state Rep. Tristan Rader (D-Lakewood) said.
Rader fears for the November election.
"Now we're going to have a governor potentially that's going to be conflicted, that's making millions of dollars off of these data centers," he said.
Republican billionaire Vivek Ramaswamy’s personal investments in data centers and digital infrastructure could cause a problem, he said, since the governor oversees and appoints the leaders to regulate these tech hubs.
"Ramaswamy holds significant investments in essentially every link in the data center supply chain," progressive organization Innovation Ohio's Caitlin Johnson said.
Financial disclosures
Ramaswamy's financial disclosure form, obtained by open records laws, shows the entrepreneur has a large portfolio with more than a dozen holdings in companies affiliated with data centers.
He holds stock in NVIDIA, one of the largest AI chip-making companies, individually, as well as through Strive U.S. Semiconductor ETF, which he cofounded.
He also invests in Microsoft and Amazon, two of the largest data center developers and cloud operators in not just the country, but also specifically Ohio.
It’s unclear how much he earns from each of these assets, as Ohio law does not require full transparency with income. However, a federal tax filing report from 2023 shows Ramaswamy had a holding worth up to $5 million in Microsoft.
He also holds stocks in plenty of AI-focused businesses, ones that either work in data center infrastructure, power or cryptocurrency.
Ramaswamy has long been a supporter of the tech expansion.
"In our own state here, we’ve got an AI data center boom, which is great," Ramaswamy said during a speech in 2025.
He didn’t respond to a request for comment for this story, but previously, he said that all of his policies around data centers would benefit both the need to store and process information, as well as meet the needs of Ohioans.
"If you are going to use electricity from the electric grid, you should have to pay for it and bring your own energy," he said in the summer.
His platform, announced in August, would prohibit new data centers from coming to the state until companies pay electric bills for the community they're in.
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Libertarian candidate Don Kissick is against data centers, and his financial disclosure did not share any investments or income related to data centers or AI at all.
Democratic candidate Dr. Amy Acton also wants a conditional moratorium on data centers.
"We are absolutely open, but we're not for sale," Acton said in early August. "We have conditions."
Acton’s financial report shows a couple of technology-related holdings like Microsoft, but she holds stock in Iron Mountain, which runs a data center near Dayton, Ohio.
Iron Mountain's Ohio data center is a small-scale hub, using just 1.4 megawatts and serving the surrounding cities. The company, however, is expansive, existing on three continents and using more than 1.4 gigawatts.
Hyperscale facilities are the most common in Ohio, according to a study done by the University of Virginia. Those giants typically use a minimum of 40-50 megawatts, according to Policy Matters Ohio.
The governor has "oversight of the agencies that regulate data centers and determine whether or not to give them tax breaks," Johnson said, emphasizing the importance of not being fiscally involved in their development.
We asked both candidates if they would divest from their data-center-related holdings if elected governor, but didn’t hear back from either before this story was published.
"Dr. Acton does not own any individual stocks, and as Governor she will not invest in or possess individual stocks," the campaign said after this story aired on television.
Follow Statehouse and Columbus bureau reporter Morgan Trau on X, Instagram and Facebook. Email her at Morgan.Trau@wews.com.
