Frontlines of the Future

A SPECIAL REPORT BY ADAMS MULTIMEDIA

AI Data Centers Move in Next Door

BY MIKE SUNNUCKS • Adams MultiMedia MIKE SUNNUCKS

Adams MultiMedia

Dayva Goetzinger has idyllic views from her family’s farm in Houston County, Minnesota.

“We are lucky,” said Goetzinger, whose family has owned farmland in southeastern Minnesota for more than a century. “We live on a ridge. We see the sunrise and the sunset. … All you see is green.”

But Goetzinger is worried about the monumental wave of proposed artificial intelligence data centers occurring across the country erasing bucolic countrysides and straining power grids and water supplies.

“They keep taking and taking and taking farmland. For what?” she said. “We are going to be a land of gross data centers.”

Goetzinger isn’t alone.

‘SOMETHING I HAVE NEVER SEEN BEFORE’

Across the U.S., community backlash is rising over data centers’ energy and water usage, noise, and consumption of farmland.

AI models require immense bandwidth; a single AI

‘NEVER SEEN BEFORE’

Across the country, community concerns have arisen about AI data centers over energy and water usage, local noise and ecosystem impacts, and proposed developments gobbling up farmland and open spaces.

Artificial intelligence training models and AI prompts and searches require significantly more bandwidth and energy than conventional software and technology platforms.

An AI prompt can require 10 to 15 times as much energy as a Google search, according to separate estimates from the International Energy Agency and OpenAI, which owns and operates ChatGPT.

Training a large AI model requires even more front-end machine learning and energy, with new AI data centers projected to require 10 to 40 times more power than pre-AI facilities, according to a report by the University of Virginia analyzing data centers in Ohio, Minnesota, Wisconsin and other Midwestern states.

There are also broader dystopian fears about AI taking away jobs and livelihoods.

As many as 15% of U.S. jobs (24 million positions) could be eliminated over the next five years, and as many as 55% of jobs (87 million roles) could be reshaped by AI, according to Boston Consulting Group.

“People are very worried,” said Becky Vo, head of AI business for FPT Americas, a software technology company that has been working on AI projects and rollouts. “There’s a lot of concerns about the whole ecosystem.”

The result has been a groundswell of local opposition to data centers.

Skeptics have mobilized on social media, turned out at public meetings, and are advocating for state and local moratoriums on new projects.

In Dubuque County, Iowa, about 300 people turned out for a recent town hall on data centers. That type of engagement is occurring across the country, frequently dwarfing turnout for other issues.

“It’s really something I have never seen before,” said Ed Moed, CEO of Hot Paper Lantern, a national marketing agency, which has worked with developers and companies on site selections and community outreach for two decades. “It’s town-to-town, county-to-county, state-to-state.”

A recent Gallup poll found Americans more likely to support a nuclear power plant being built in their community than an AI data center (45% to 27%).

Overall, 71% of those polled by Gallup oppose data centers in their communities.

‘IT’S ASTOUNDING’

There are already as many as 5,400 data centers in the U.S., according to Mary Ann Dickinson, policy director at the Washington-based Lincoln Institute of Land Policy.

She said the number of data centers could double by 2030. An analysis by the American Edge Project, Technology Councils of North America and Axios identified close to 3,000 proposed data centers nationwide.

“It’s astounding,” Dickinson said. Global power needs for data centers are expected to nearly double from 103 gigawatts to 200 gigawatts by 2030, with an estimated $3 trillion in investments needed to keep up with AI growth, according to commercial real estate firm JLL.

By 2030, data centers could account for one-fifth of global energy use, according to Mahmut Kandemir, a computer science professor at Penn State University. In 2024, data centers accounted for 1.5% of global energy consumption, according to IEA.

Capital spending on data centers and other AI drivers is projected to total $7.6 trillion over the next six years, according to a recent analysis by Goldman Sachs.

The AI and data center waves are being led by the world’s wealthiest companies and some of the world’s wealthiest billionaires (Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, Bill Gates, Larry Ellison and Mark Zuckerberg).

AI pioneers Anthropic, the company behind Claude, and OpenAI are each eyeing $1 trillion initial public offerings.

AMERICA’S ADVANTAGE

The U.S. is home to the bulk of data centers worldwide, with AI advocates, including President Donald Trump, saying new investments are needed for America to maintain technological dominance.

Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Tom Cotton, R-Ark., has asked the Trump administration to investigate whether foreign actors, such as China, are trying to “manipulate” public opinion to slow development of new AI data centers.

“Maintaining America’s AI advantage is vital to American economic strength, diplomacy, national security and military power. Americans certainly have valid concerns about potential rising energy costs and strains on natural resources related to data centers,” Cotton said.

“But we can’t allow any effort by foreign adversaries to extort these fears and undermine our technological development,” Cotton wrote in a June 10 letter to U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche.

‘TAKE A STEP BACK’

The breakneck speed of the AI wave is prompting pushback and calls to pump the brakes on data centers via moratoriums.

“You are seeing a lot more general community concerns,” said Jack Wilson, a commissioner in Queen Anne’s County, Maryland. “The data centers bring different levels of interest because you hear all the stuff about power and about water. That’s elevated the data centers for a lot more people.”

Wilson worries about data centers impacting water supplies key to local farms and agricultural production.

Data center opposition has seen “not-in-my-backyard” neighbors and conservationists tap into broader community and societal fears about AI and how much energy, water and land data centers will consume.

The AI data center wave is projected to increase global carbon emissions by as much as 220 million tons by 2030, equivalent to 0.6% of global energy emissions, according to Goldman Sachs.

Skeptics want more transparency related to potential tax breaks and incentives for data center projects.

Still, localities could see big tax revenue from expensive data centers and the equipment inside them, as well as community benefits paid out by deep-pocketed developers and users.

David Rubenstein, a Seattle-based attorney who specializes in data center developments with the Polsinelli law firm, said the AI wave can improve power grids and infrastructure and provide revenue gains for local communities.

Rubenstein points to a parish in Louisiana giving teachers $50,000 bonuses via revenue from a planned $27 billion Meta data center.

“It’s just a massive windfall for local governments,” said Rubenstein, who has worked on data centers projects in Ohio, Texas, Virginia and the Pacific Northwest.

There have been moratoriums on new data centers approved or being pushed across the country, including parts of Wisconsin, Minnesota, Maryland, Florida, North Carolina, Iowa and Utah.

More than 100 jurisdictions across the country have approved data center moratoriums, according to Interconnected Capital LLC. Wilson said Queen Anne’s County approved a oneyear moratorium in June.

“We really just wanted to take a step back,” said Wilson, who also serves on the Maryland Associations of Counties and toured a large planned data center development near Frederick, Maryland. “Everyone is just really cautious moving forward.”

Wilson said moratoriums give localities time to examine and adjust zoning ordinances to account for data centers. It allows for more due diligence on the projects, including what happens if this generation of AI data centers and chips become obsolete.

‘NEARLY DOUBLED’

Dickinson said her group is working on some model ordinance language for localities to consider as they look to address proposed data centers.

Local considerations include due diligence related to water and energy use, how to craft community benefits and infrastructure agreements with data center developers and users, and the backend of such deals.

The computer chips and equipment, including cooling and water systems that fill and fuel AI data centers, could change or evolve. There has been talk about future data centers being located in space or on ocean waters.

“What happens when the new data center becomes obsolete and the developer could walk away,” Dickinson said.

The oceans of capital flowing into AI and the new data centers needed to fuel machine learning and autonomous systems are inundating the U.S. real estate markets with data center developers.

Brian Strawberry, chief economist for North Carolina- based consulting firm FMI Corp., said local resistance and moratoriums are prompting data center developers to hedge their bets with more potential sites.

That’s growing the number of proposed data centers, with developers and AI firms adding community concerns to their site selection processes, along with available land and water and power needs.

“The number of proposed projects has nearly doubled,” Strawberry said. “There’s a lot of pushback for builders.”

‘SPIDEY SENSATIONS’

Back in Minnesota, Goetzinger said concerns about the impacts of AI data centers on ecosystems and farmland have increased public engagement and awareness.

Goetzinger worries about the impacts of proposed new transmission lines that will run through her family’s farm.

The regional utility, Dairyland Power Cooperative, says the transmission lines are part of $21.8 billion worth of regional power grid upgrades, including for renewable energy projects. The utility, which operates in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa and Illinois, stated the upgrades are not tied to data centers.

But Goetzinger said the potential for data centers is on the radar of communities across the country.

“Spidey sensations are everywhere,” she said.

The wave of AI data centers being proposed across the U.S. is creating concerns about impacts on farmland as well as power grids and water supplies.

PHOTO CREDIT: KAITA GORSUCH