America vs. the Data Center

America is building one of the largest computing infrastructure projects in its history, and most of the country has not noticed. Data centers now operate in nearly every state, drawing electricity that is reshaping utility bills, water that is straining aquifers during droughts, land that families have farmed for generations, and tax dollars that rarely deliver the jobs they promise.

This book follows that buildout from the inside: a Kentucky farm family who turned down twenty six million dollars for part of their land, a Georgia subdivision that lost water pressure because a data center's connections were never properly billed, a Memphis neighborhood facing gas turbines that ran without a permit, and a North Carolina town still waiting on jobs first promised in 2009. It also follows the small towns now writing zoning rules before construction crews arrive rather than after.

Drawing on public records, government filings, court documents, and local reporting, the book traces the costs of this buildout across electricity, water, land, and tax incentives, then examines the national security argument now used to justify moving faster than any of these questions can usually be answered.

This is not an argument against artificial intelligence. It is an accounting of what the physical infrastructure behind it has actually cost so far, town by town, and what a fairer version of this buildout could look like.