Hundreds packed into Coachella City Hall on a warm May evening. They spilled outside. Signs waved under the lights. “Defend Coachella, no data centers.” “Protect our environment, not tech profits.” The message was blunt. This working-class city in the Coachella Valley had reached a breaking point over plans for a massive computing complex tied to the artificial intelligence boom. The proposal, known as the Coachella Valley Technology Campus, emerged earlier this year through an agreement signed in February between the city and Stronghold Power Systems. Documents outline a site that could stretch across 450 acres near Avenue 52 and Fillmore Street. Initial phases called for three buildings, each roughly one million square feet. Capacity per facility sat at 90 megawatts. Scaled fully, the project might draw as much as 600 megawatts. That figure equals eight times the current demand of the entire city of Coachella, according to local analysis shared at public meetings.…