Virginia is the unofficial data center capital of the world, with more than half of the world’s internet traffic running through hundreds of facilities in Loudoun and Fairfax counties, generating some 74,000 jobs and $9.1 billion for the state’s economy each year.
But the sprawling data centers are also transforming the landscape and gobbling up massive amounts of water and electricity, leading state politicians to grapple with how to regulate and monitor the rapid development — without alienating the powerful interests backing the projects, from tech giants to local leaders and labor unions.
It’s a delicate balance that’s quickly moving to the center of a national conversation about how to execute on the Trump administration’s push to rapidly expand the country’s AI infrastructure.
Policymakers across the country are watching Virginia’s efforts closely, said Michael Villa, an analyst at 10a Labs, the AI company behind the Data Center Watch Project.
“They look up to Northern Virginia because [they] are the ones with more experience and where this dynamic has been working for longer,” he told The Hill.
The Hill's Surina Venkat and Lee Ann Anderson have more here.
