We Mapped Rural Data Center Development – and Opposition. Here's What We Found.

Washington, D.C.'s metropolitan area has long hummed with data centers. The region, which encompasses much of Northern Virginia, has become known as Data Center Alley, home to more data centers than anywhere else in the world. But the data center boom, driven by the rise of AI and the race to build the infrastructure powering it, is changing the geography of these energy-intensive, warehouse-like facilities.

Data centers have arrived in rural America...