Data centers have arrived in rural America, with many large facilities being built in areas with smaller populations and fewer resources to negotiate deals with developers. According to a recent analysis by The Daily Yonder, approximately 30 of the 529 data centers currently in operation are located in rural counties, representing about 6% of operating data centers.

The Geography of the Data Center Boom

The Daily Yonder analyzed crowd-sourced data on the locations of data centers, how they connect to existing grid infrastructure, and where communities are fighting back. The analysis shows that large data centers, characteristic of the current boom, represent outsized investments in rural areas.

A recent example of this can be seen in Port Washington, Wisconsin, where Vantage Data Centers is building a $15 billion hyperscale data center campus to serve OpenAI and Oracle. The investment in Port Washington, a town of around 13,000 on the shores of Lake Michigan, represents 50% of the community’s tax base, according to local advocate Prescott Balch.

Data Center Development Maps Onto Existing Infrastructure

Data centers’ electricity needs often drive their construction in relative proximity to power grid infrastructure that can support their operations. The majority of the facilities are five miles or closer to high-voltage transmission lines.

Original reporting: KTBS 3 (Shreveport) — read the source article.