A recent Gallup poll found that 71% of Americans oppose building AI datacenters in their communities

Repurposing a small share of existing U.S. parking lots could host massive AI datacenter capacity without consuming new land, water, or community goodwill

A more politically and environmentally durable model for AI datacenter expansion

BOULDER, Colo., May 19, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Auddia Inc. (NASDAQ:AUUD) ("Auddia" or the "Company") today released a new analysis showing that LT350's distributed AI data center canopies deployed in the airspace above existing parking lots could meet a significant share of future AI compute demand using only a fraction of the commercial parking already built across the United States.

The announcement comes as public opposition to traditional AI data centers reaches new highs. A recent Gallup poll found that 71% of Americans oppose building AI data centers in their communities, including 48% who are strongly opposed. That number is higher than opposition to local nuclear power plants. Concerns center on land consumption, water use, power demand, and quality-of-life impacts.

"Americans are clearly saying ‘not in my backyard' to hyperscale data centers," said Jeff Thramann, Executive Chairman and CEO of Auddia. "LT350's thesis is simple. We don't need to destroy more greenspace. We can build AI infrastructure in the airspace above parking lots that already exist, already have power and access, and are already zoned for commercial use."

The problem: AI data centers are devouring land and farmland

Across the country, communities are pushing back against mega datacenter proposals that require tens of thousands of acres, often in rural areas and on productive farmland.

Utah "Stratos" project, a newly approved AI data center campus in Box Elder County, Utah, is planned at 40,000 acres. That is roughly 2.5 times the size of Manhattan and is expected to eventually consume up to 9 gigawatts of power, more than double Utah's current statewide electricity use.
In Michigan, a 50,000-acre farmland portfolio was recently acquired in part to capitalize on demand for solar and data centers on agricultural land, raising alarms about the long-term impact of AI infrastructure on U.S. food production.

At the same time, a growing body of work shows that American cities have already paved vast areas for parking:

The Parking Reform Network's mapping of 80+ U.S. city centers shows that on average, 22% of land in large city cores is dedicated to off-street parking, with some cities like San Bernardino, California, reaching 49% of their central area as parking lots.
The U.S. Geological Survey has produced national datasets estimating the extent of parking lots across the lower 48 states, confirming that parking is a major land use in the American built environment.

"We're watching proposals for data centers the size of small states while oceans of asphalt sit underutilized," Thramann said. "It makes no sense to bulldoze farmland when we can build a second-use layer of AI infrastructure above parking that's already commercialized."

The LT350 model: Second-use infrastructure in parking lot airspace

LT350 integrates modular GPU, memory, storage, solar, and battery cartridges into the ceiling of proprietary parking-lot canopies, creating micro–data centers that do not occupy parking spaces or require new greenfield land. The canopies are designed as a second-use application of existing commercial real estate:

No new land take: All infrastructure lives in the canopy ceiling above existing stalls; parking capacity is preserved.
Second-use economics: Property owners earn incremental revenue from airspace that currently generates no rent.
Community upgrade, not an imposition: Canopies provide shade, weather protection, and optional EV charging while hosting AI compute overhead.

"Because LT350 builds up instead of out, each canopy effectively duplicates the utility of the underlying asphalt," said Thramann. "If we repurpose even a modest percentage of existing parking lots as LT350 canopy deployments, we can stand up enormous AI capacity without asking any community to sacrifice farmland, viewsheds, or water security."

Aligning with public sentiment: AI without the backlash

The Gallup findings show that opposition to AI data centers is driven primarily by resource use and land impact, not by the idea of digital infrastructure itself.

LT350's architecture is designed to directly address those concerns:

Land: Uses only already-developed commercial parking, preserving farmland and open space.
Water: Cartridge-integrated liquid cooling is being engineered to minimize water use and enable closed-loop or alternative-cooling strategies that avoid the massive withdrawals associated with many hyperscale sites.
Power: On-site solar and battery storage are designed to reduce dependence on local grids and avoid the rate shocks that have fueled community anger around traditional data centers.

"Communities are right to push back on projects that drain their water, spike their power bills, and pave over their farms," Thramann added. "LT350 is being built to deploy AI infrastructure that fits inside the footprint of the world we've already built."

For information about LT350, please visit www.LT350.com.

LT350's whitepaper, Distributed, Power-Sovereign AI Infrastructure for the Inference Economy, is available here.

About the Merger to form McCarthy Finney

Auddia entered into a definitive merger agreement on February 17, 2026. The merger contemplates a business combination between Auddia Inc. and Thramann Holdings, LLC, a single member Colorado LLC. Thramann Holdings fully owns LT350, Influence Healthcare, and Voyex, three early-stage AI native operating companies. Upon merger completion, Auddia will change its name to McCarthy Finney and trade under the ticker MCFN. McCarthy Finney is an AI holding company that will deliver AI and Web3 services to its four portfolio companies: LT350, Influence Healthcare, Voyex, and Auddia.

LT350 is a distributed AI data center company with 13 issued, 1 allowed, and 2 pending patents on a proprietary solar parking lot canopy infrastructure platform that integrates modular battery storage and GPU cartridges into the ceiling of the canopy to turn any parking lot into an AI data center. The Company aims to build the most secure, lowest latency, cost effective, and rapidly deployed network of distributed AI data centers at the edge by leveraging the use of underutilized parking lot space while strengthening the existing power infrastructure of local utilities.
Influence Healthcare is a health-tech company leveraging AI, blockchain, and vertical integration to empower surgeons to drive adoption of value based care (VBC) to the surgical specialties. The Company's mission is to leverage technology and value based enterprises (VBEs) to build an alternative healthcare system that minimizes the corporate practice of medicine, eliminates administrative waste, and enhances the autonomy and pay of health care providers to empower them to improve quality and return the patient physician relationship to the center of medicine.
Voyex is a travel services platform that leverages agentic AI, an integrated fintech platform, and utilization of charter and private jet aircraft to significantly improve the travel experience. The Company aims is to alleviate the leading pain points for travelers of lengthy flight delays and cancellations.

About Auddia Inc.

Auddia, through its proprietary AI platform for audio, is reinventing not only how consumers engage with AM/FM radio, podcasts, and other audio content but also how artists and labels promote their music and gain access to mainstream radio audiences. Auddia's Discovr Radio is the first music-promotion platform to deliver artists guaranteed exposure to radio listeners. Auddia's flagship audio superapp, called faidr, delivers multiple industry firsts, including:

Ad-free listening on any AM/FM music station
Content skipping across any AM/FM music station
One-touch skipping of entire podcast ad breaks
Integrated artist discovery experiences

For more information, visit www.auddia.com

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Certain statements in this communication, other than purely historical information, may constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the federal securities laws, including for purposes of the "safe harbor" provisions under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, concerning Auddia, Thramann Holdings, and the proposed merger between Auddia and Thramann Holdings (the "Proposed Transaction") and other matters. These forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, express or implied statements relating to Auddia's and Thramann Holdings' management expectations, hopes, beliefs, intentions or strategies regarding the future including, without limitation, statements regarding: the structure, timing and completion of the proposed merger by and between Auddia and Thramann Holdings, and the expected effects, perceived benefits or opportunities of the Proposed Transaction; the combined company's listing on Nasdaq after the closing of the Proposed Transaction; expectations regarding the structure, timing and completion of the financing needed to close the Proposed Transaction, including investment amounts from investors, timing of closing of the Proposed Transaction, expected proceed, expectations regarding the use of proceeds, and impact on ownership structure; the anticipated timing of the closing; the expected executive officers and directors of the combined company; each company's and the combined company's expected cash position at the closing and cash runway of the combined company following the proposed merger and any additional financing; the future operations of the combined company, including research and development activities; the nature, strategy and focus of the combined company; the development and commercial potential and potential benefits of any products and services of the combined company; the cash balance of the combined entity at closing; expectations related to the anticipated timing of the closing of the Proposed Transaction (the "Closing"); the expectations regarding the ownership structure of the combined company; the expected trading of the combined company's stock on Nasdaq under the ticker symbol "MCFN" after the Closing; and other statements that are not historical fact.

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Auddia, Thramann Holdings, and their respective directors and certain of their executive officers and other members of management may be deemed to be participants in the solicitation of proxies from Auddia's stockholders in connection with the proposed transaction under the rules of the SEC. Information about Auddia's directors and executive officers, including a description of their interests in Auddia, is included in Auddia's most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2025, which was filed with the SEC on March 6, 2026. Additional information regarding the persons who may be deemed participants in the proxy solicitations, including about the directors and executive officers of Thramann Holdings, and a description of their direct and indirect interests, by security holdings or otherwise, will also be included in the Form S-4, the Proxy Statement and other relevant materials to be filed with the SEC when they become available. These documents can be obtained free of charge from the sources indicated above.

Investor Relations:

Kirin Smith, President

PCG Advisory, Inc.

ksmith@pcgadvisory.com

www.pcgadvisory.com

Auddia Highlights LT350's Parking-Lot Canopy Network as an Alternative to Farmland-Devouring AI Megacenters