AI Dominated the Super Bowl Ads This Year

Just as dominant? Voter sentiment that AI infrastructure should be American-made. So says new AAM polling.

Ads that air during the Super Bowl are famously among the most expensive real estate on television. Just 30 seconds of time during the breaks in this weekend’s big game cost a cool $8 million. That’s why we typically do a Monday morning rundown of the Super Bowl commercials that tout the American-made-ness of the product being sold. Studying the Super Bowl ad slate, after all, is an interesting gauge of trends and our collective feelings about the wider economy.

Aside from Super Bowl commercial mainstay WeatherTech, which makes auto accessories in Illinois, there weren’t many spots this year promoting or noting a brand’s American-made-ness. Instead, there were plenty of ads trying to set the narrative around artificial intelligence.

Roughly a quarter of this year’s Super Bowl commercials sold or featured AI, noted Ad Age. And there’s a reason those companies spent big on such conspicuous advertising: They need users to adopt their tools because investor expectations for these companies are sky high. OpenAI, for example, is reportedly seeking a valuation of $800 billion as it tries to raise cash.

This Super Bowl ad spending may not be a sign of strength. Dealbook pointed out that ads during the 2022 Super Bowl were dominated by cryptocurrency firms, some of which were out of business by the end of that year. Something similar happened in 2000 when more than a dozen internet start-ups (like Pets.com) bought Super Bowl ad space, only to evaporate when the tech stock bubble burst shortly after.

AI has plenty of hurdles to overcome. These companies require huge banks of computers — called data centers — running day and night to keep their services functioning, and those centers require huge amounts electricity and water to maintain. No one wants to live next to one. Conversely, these AI models continue to report growth; people are using them, and the infrastructure for these tools — those data centers — must be built.

If they’re gonna be built, U.S. voters want those data centers to be American-made.

Polling conducted by Morning Consult in December 2025 and commissioned by the Alliance for American Manufacturing revealed that nearly three quarters of respondents believe that data centers should use American-made materials to maximize job creation. At the same time, seven in 10 respondents are also concerned that the spread of AI could negatively impact manufacturing jobs. What’s more, nearly two-thirds (64%) want the U.S. to expand its energy production and the electric grid to support AI and prevent higher energy costs.

This is only a snapshot of public sentiment to think about. But, while municipalities across the country weigh the approval of these big, landscape-altering construction projects, it’s important food for thought: Will AI’s growth hamstring employment in manufacturing industries? And when a data center is greenlighted, shouldn’t our elected officials consider where its assembled inputs and materials come from? If we’re to treat data centers as economic infrastructure, should they not be held to regulatory standards like Buy America? Doing so would see that the building blocks of their construction and maintenance are made in America, by American workers. And doing that would mitigate (in some small part) the negative impact that AI could have on American factory work writ large.

A lot will happen in the field of artificial intelligence between now and next year’s Super Bowl. Will we see an American-made data center featured in next year’s crop of Super Bowl ads? Maybe? In the meantime, you can read more about voters’ feelings on AI and American manufacturing here.