Fifteen years ago, data centers were big – the size of a Walmart Supercenter, perhaps. Then, they became as massive as ten Costcos. Now, thanks to AI’s ravenous hunger for power, they have morphed into sprawling behemoths ten times bigger than the Pentagon, or even the size of a small city. As tech companies compete to develop the biggest, most powerful AI models and the US government pushes to keep data center construction on American soil, these mega datacenters are also rising at a breakneck pace.
To feed the AI, data centers need electricity. Lots of it. In a gold rush-like atmosphere, electric utilities across the U.S., but particularly in the South, are seeking to capitalize on the demand by bringing these AI data centers to their states. Big Tech customers ensure a steady and predictable revenue stream with long-term contracts. They also allow rate-regulated utilities to justify new profit-capped power generation projects, and bring economic development wins with area jobs and investment.
