For the past few decades, data centers have been quietly built all over the US, largely in areas with both fiber connectivity and proximity to power—Silicon Valley and the DC area were popular choices. They helped stream Netflix or store stuff in the cloud or do any one of the countless stupid and important things we all do constantly online.
Then came ChatGPT and the AI race. Suddenly, tech oligarchs argued, we needed to build as many data centers as possible—and fast. Making the best AI, they said in speeches and news interviews and social media posts, required a massive buildout, especially of hyperscalers—behemoth versions of the structures we already had. …
Data centers began cropping up everywhere, as companies hurried to find the cheapest land, power, and water. Every day brought a splashier headline. … If you trusted various economic outlets, data center construction now underpinned pretty much the entire US economy. All of this as tech CEOs publicly mused about how AI would take everyone’s jobs and replace human creativity itself.
People, naturally, started to ask questions.
