What happens when data centers come to town? Pretty much, whether he wanted to or not. Tech firms are pledging to pour trillions of dollars into building new data centers to continue to power the rapid growth of AI models, which means they’re asking for new neighbors across the country. According to the Wall Street Journal Report, about three quarters of all US Data Center skills come from 33 of the 3,143 states, residents of those communities are beginning to wonder if BOOM COMMINICE is important to the big box next to the big computer power box.
Aggregate investment in small pockets of the country has created today’s boomtowns in areas that spent a few decades ago from other industries taking root. UwsJ highlighted Umatilla County, Washington as one of these regions that has suddenly grown with workers and money where the Amazing of Umatilla, where Amazon created an annual budget fund, has resulted in the city’s annual budget page, being $ 144 million by $ 144 million in the year 202.
The money Amazon bought at a local high school to pay for new robotics and other tech programs. Home construction and sales have been addressed, and nearby towns have seen an influx of new customers to restaurants, bars, and other businesses, per the WSJ. Similar things are happening across the country, in places like Richland Parish, Louisiana, which will be home to Meta’s $10 billion Center Countrout. Washtenaw, Michigan is pledging the same spirit as Opelai and Oracle has found a home in a data center project that is considered the largest in the country’s history.
So what’s the problem? Well, the influx of people living in these small towns means less housing. Umatilla County has seen its home prices double, per the WSJ—at affordable prices for people pulling in Amazon cash, but most of the community there isn’t. A report from the local publication Hermiston Herald earlier this year found that the County is building homes at a record pace and still has a shortage of available units to support residents. That has led to some cities developing money to build quickly, with plans to recoup the money as homes sell – which development banks don’t cut back on.
That’s a pretty important bet that these local governments are making, because they often provide companies with big tax companies to set up shop in their borders. Matilla County, for example, has granted Amazon a complete exemption from property taxes for 15 years, with a corresponding local NPR. Similar tax breaks have been sent to communities across the country, resulting in nearly $6 billion in relief over the past five years, according to a CNBC report. A recent study from the University of Michigan found that those tax breaks benefit corporations more than communities, which end up giving away valuable potential revenue.
While the construction of these facilities can be a boost for these villages, life after demolition is not always easy. Earlier this year, the New York Times highlighted that communities in Newton County, Georgia, are experiencing water shortages after Meta began building its data center in the county. The energy demands of these data centers also tend to keep fossil energy sources online to quickly, exposing health communities to the health effects of burning natural gas and coal – all while residents are footing the bill for growing energy demand. Bloomberg recently reported that locations near data centers have seen their electricity costs jump as much as 267% compared to five years ago.
Increasingly, communities under the proposed data center are building back. Residents in Tucson, Arizona successfully pushed back against the proposed data center in August, and the defeat is facing major tech in places like Racine County, Wisconsin; College Station, Texas; and Indianapolis, Indiana. PEAD Center Watch, $64 billion in data center projects blocked or delayed by local pubback.
Big tech firms certainly seem to know the math is here. They just hope that they can continue to sell the boom before it fills up.
“No one wants a data center in their back yard, I don’t want a data center in my back yard. “Data centers, if they work, don’t bring a lot of jobs. They do the infrastructure side, but you don’t really get a ton of that community benefit from actually having a data center, honestly.”
