The land around Hassayampa Ranch, 50 miles west of Phoenix, is dotted with saguaro cacti and home to coyotes, jackrabbits, and rattlesnakes. Its few hundred human residents were largely drawn by the tranquility and clear skies for stargazing.
But some of the biggest names in tech are suddenly very interested in what happens on this serene stretch of desert. The region once dominated by ranches and farmland will soon become a new kind of tech hub—one that’s largely unpeopled, made up of row upon row of humming, energy- and water-hungry GPU racks in gigantic AI data centers. And there’s not much locals can do about it.
