The Secret Geography of AI Data Centers

A controversial topic is the expansion of American cities. Sprawl has spread throughout every metropolitan area as the way to expand. The only reason cities wouldn't be doing that is if they physically can't. You can't tell me San Francisco wouldn't build floating cul-de-sacs if it was easy to do so. Many will agree that the way edges of metropolitan areas are currently expanding isn't necessarily pretty or efficient. Imagine if this part of beautiful, walk-y Iowa was used a bit more densely. Significantly more people would fit in a significantly smaller area, leaving more room for farmland. Either way, these suburban expansions come with plenty of other divisive expansions. Some people want to build prisons, maybe an Amazon warehouse right now. But especially in the last few years, the controversial topic has been data centers. These data centers result in economic stimulation, but they're massive, with plenty of problems coming with them. So today, I want to look at that issue from a geographic perspective, showing you what's really going on in a different sense, and where in the country we're seeing this happen. Before we get into that though, I have a Minecraft server in the shape of the US, so if you want to go on there and build your own AI data centers, go for it. The IP is mcamerica.us on Java Edition with version 1.21.11. Join up and check it out. Thank you. So let's talk about geography in a situation where it's admittedly difficult to do so. I'll admit myself that my personal opinion on AI and data centers is mildly negative, but my intention here is not to show you why they're bad. Instead, it's to give you the geographical information on where they're being built, and what's happening in these situations. With that being said, here's a map of the proposed and constructed major data centers. And looking at the states leading the way, we notice some interesting things. Virginia is in first place, with 398 currently operating, and we'll focus on them because they're known as the data center capital of the world. This is specifically centered in North Virginia, in the DC metro, in an interesting location called Data Center Alley. This is around 20 miles outside DC, and it's centered in Ashburn, Sterling, and the other areas around here. It wasn't planned to be exactly the way it is, though. Rather, it rose as part of the broader Dulles Technology Corridor, which developed obviously due to the Dulles International Airport just south of here, a bit earlier than data centers existed. This entire area is a high-tech hub, and being formerly outside of town, it was very popular with cheap lands due to the airport, and it was a great connection to the metropolitan area. If we look back at 1984, you can see this area was perfectly placed on the edge of the DC metro, so they could simply expand into the farmland. But much like the other suburbs, this quickly became much more difficult as expansion occurred. This tech hub provides Loudoun County with a ton of high-paying jobs, and making it one of the most affluent counties in America. But this comes with things like present-day AI data centers, which have been centered here. Importantly, this is no longer the peak spot for new constructions, since the area is so rich, land now costs significantly more than previously, and the metropolitan area developed around Data Center Alley, so they can no longer expand outwards very easily. Because of this, the AI regions have shifted. Texas is second in total number of data centers, and this is extremely predictable if you know anything about Texas. The entire state has boomed in population, with its economy coming with it. Dallas-Fort Worth is the biggest hotspot, especially around Dallas-Lovefield Airport. The Metroplex is one of the top tech hubs in the country, so this really doesn't surprise me. Illinois is pretty high on this list, mostly on the outer parts of the Chicago metro. As a Wisconsinite, I've always found this line of warehouses and tech centers fascinating. They're all built here because the taxes are cheaper in Wisconsin than Illinois, so putting your new constructions right on the border gives you the best of both worlds. Within this, Microsoft built the world's largest AI supercomputer at the former Foxconn site. Foxconn was originally meant to be a campus for a Chinese company, until they bailed out unexpectedly. Mount Pleasant had already built the infrastructure for it, so the perfect opportunity was there for a data center to be built, and a massive one at that. An emerging AI data center hub is Phoenix, Arizona. If you've been here before, the sprawling economic growth is pretty absurd. The largest tech hubs seeing this construction would be in the West Valley and the East Valley, as stupid as that sounds. One is in Avondale, Goodyear, and the other is within Mesa. Something I do find interesting here is that it's somewhat apolitical of a movement. Virginia is largely left-leaning, especially in that area. Illinois is largely left-leaning, while Texas is right-leaning, and Arizona is a swing state. I'm single-handedly squashing narratives, guys, look at me go. So that's where the most AI data centers are being constructed, but now we can dive into some specific situations, like Kevin O'Leary's massive plan for a 20,000-acre data center in Utah. It would be placed in Hansel Valley, just off of the Great Salt Lake, and it would be one of the largest on Earth once it's completed. But this would use 9 gigawatts of power, more than double the current consumption of the entire state of Utah at the moment. The area is also in a deep drought right now, and it may require some amount of water, we don't really know how much, which presents another issue. His bigger plan is actually up in Grand Prairie, Alberta in Canada, where a campus called Wonder Valley would be the largest on Earth. It would be within a forest, including a downtown and thousands of acres of open space. Somewhere like that with a lot less development, the thought is that you can allow for a bit less efficient land use with all that open space. A more random situation is a proposed data center in Broadview, Montana. There's a story by the New York Times on this, focusing on a rancher who's fighting the center. In rural areas like this, it's a controversial issue because of the added noise, the power usage, and the water usage. I think it's funny, in a rural area just north of Billings, a good number of jobs is 30-100. He also basically told anyone who doesn't like the AI data center to just move away, which is never a great look. And this presents us with the controversy of these data centers. So it's important to know the three biggest issues people have. Number one, they're loud, which is bad if they are ever near people's houses, who much of the time did not approve of that data center. Number two, the energy they use. As stated, many of these larger ones are using gigawatts of power, absurdly more than many other areas are using. That's like tens of thousands of homes right there. Third, water consumption. In drought-ridden regions especially, using a lot of water is very controversial for something like that. This is murky because water usage varies significantly by project, with some even recycling water, decreasing the usage significantly. But it's still a problem in somewhere like Wyoming, where multiple data centers are planned around the city. There's a big one just south of town, and this metro has some pretty lengthy rules on water usage, being a big reason why they aren't growing faster. So people are pretty angry about a data center using a few gallons, or a bit more than that. Finally, I think highlighting some of the largest data centers in America would be interesting. Chicago holds Lakeside Technology Center, a big part of their data center boom. And then QTS Atlanta comes next, a large one within an underrated booming city in this industry. Microsoft has a data center in Quincy, Washington, which is very large. And Switch has a Las Vegas campus, and a Tahoe-Reno campus. Meta then is within the Dallas-Fort Worth campus, having a large facility in Fort Worth. And the top two are Meta as well. But more unexpectedly, the second place is in Prineville, Oregon, which makes a slight bit of sense, it seems like they just wanted to go rural. And the largest in the country, of course, is in Altoona, Iowa. You know what they say about Altoona, so this obviously makes sense. A divisive issue like this is so important though. American cities will only continue to grow. And I'm sure somewhere like Phoenix won't always be the biggest hub to this. And honestly, who even knows how the outskirts of cities and governments will treat this issue over the next ten years. There's really no way of telling, and that's not my job at all. I'm just a geography YouTuber. So thanks for watching. Thank you to the members this week, it's always much appreciated. If you want to become a member, the link is down in the description below. All this money goes straight into my savings. So if you appreciate the content, and you want to help me out, there's no obligation here, but it is super appreciated, and it helps me out a ton. Thank you!