Data center math does not add up

Though I am a far cry from being an “early adopter” or “technology influencer,” I am also not a Luddite or someone who generally fears or holds the latest/greatest technological innovation in contempt.  

I am fond, though, of a favorite Mark Twain quote: “I’m all for progress. It’s the damn change that I am against.” 

Data centers, fast on their way to becoming the latest societal scourge, are not new. Their purpose and proliferation are rapidly evolving, but Cisco, Amazon, Meta, Google, and others have been leasing and selling computing storage and data capacity for nearly two decades. Those centers are where the “cloud” is located. Demand for more computing capacity and storage is driven by the development of AI, increasing 5G adoption, as well as visual content streaming of nearly every kind—all of which consume significant storage space and bandwidth. 

On the plus side of the ledger, though that list may be short, data centers do generate massive property tax payments and revenue to the host local government or school system. 

Though I am only an occasional user of AI, I have witnessed some of its marvels and benefits, besides providing college and even high school students whole new ways to cheat on their term papers. But when I recently read in several different credible publications that our U.S. tech giants are investing approximately $7 trillion in their data center expansion and development between now and 2030, I seriously began to question their math, much less their desire for an eventual return on investment. 

The entire U.S. federal budget for fiscal year 2026 totals roughly $6.9 trillion. With an active war underway with Iran, and mission support in multiple places around the globe, our U.S. defense budget is $1.5 trillion. 

As a capitalist, I believe that private sector enterprises and their shareholders can place bad bets with their capital and let the marketplace shake things out; only they are not doing that alone. Georgia Power, a well-managed utility, is investing billions in new power generation and its transmission network, as well as assisting in the build-out of data centers, which are about to become several of their largest customers.   

And again, making that choice is within Georgia Power’s authority, but using eminent domain to locate or expand their transmission line property should not be. 

A data center is not a “public benefit or amenity.” It is a data and profit center for a for-profit enterprise. I have been shocked to learn recently of a new 35-mile transmission line project, almost alongside other existing utility right-of-way, which crosses through four counties in west Georgia to a data center site location in Coweta County, directly impacting more than 330 property owners and requiring the relocation and even demolition of dozens of homes and farms, many of which have been multi-generational properties. 

I support and tip my hat to the ongoing efforts of Ansley Brown, a young mother, wife, and resident of Grantville, Georgia. Ms. Brown has been loudly and directly pushing back on the Georgia Power transmission project, garnering a following of more than 1 million on social media, thousands of area resident petition signatures and organizing numerous community events across the region to slow or pause the project. Ms. Brown’s initial involvement was spurred by the proposed loss of her childhood home and her mother’s current home. While that residence and many others on that quiet street have now reached an agreement to sell to Georgia Power, hundreds of properties are still yet to be taken and bulldozed. Thousands more will become front-row seat neighbors to this massive new transmission line system, and eventually, likely, a data center. 

I am reminded of the Space Race, which took place on a much smaller scale, but delivered incredible societal benefits from miniaturization and transistors and early computer chips, to the knowledge we gained in being able to view our planet from space and the many satellites that now surround us providing a wide array of services. I am not a tech giant or a futurist who solely sees a despotic future ahead of us, but I can see about a dozen different ways that these investments could go south, or that water tables of finite nature could be permanently damaged by forever chemical waste.  

Slowing down this literal artificial brain train seems only common sense. Let’s hit the pause button and perhaps reboot.