In the rush to build the physical spaces necessary for the immense processing power required by AI, a new hurdle is emerging. Communities across the country are asking developers and tech giants a common question: what’s in it for us? States are even weighing moratoriums, requirements, and policies that ensure data center builds are not solely focused on the desires of industry titans, but also address local infrastructure, environmental and sustainability demands.

Show and Tell

The dollars projected for the AI infrastructure buildout are astonishing: “Credit ratings agency Moody’s now projects $3 trillion in global spending over the next five years to keep pace with rapid data center expansion and AI capacity demand.” While both data center builds, and tangential projects can be boosts for construction companies and workers, lots of people are starting to ask: then what? Research, such as that of Gerardo del Cerro Santamaría, author of “Contesting Megaprojects” underscores the importance of understanding the complex, disruptive and long range impacts of data centers. 

At San-Francisco design firm, Gensler, Rob LoBuono confirms the rising pushback against the rapid pace of data center builds, noting: “The number one concern we have in the market right now is public sentiment….Some people actually see the impacts of these buildings if they’re not designed well. There’s noise concerns, there’s concerns about construction, there’s concerns about potentially pollution.” With policy makers and communities considering the full lifecycle of data center projects, they are demanding development plans that explicitly focus on community benefits. 

As Kelly Bacon, vice president and data center market lead at Dallas-based AECOM sums up: “Any community is going to be looking at the cost-benefit….How can you convince a community that they’re getting something good?” According to Construction Dive, the kinds of community benefits being sought in conjunction with data centers include “affordable housing commitments, school investments, job creation, lower utility bills or local grid upgrades.” Specifically, for example, Sebastian Obando reports that Meta and Amazon have made these investments in tandem with some of their data center builds: 

• On Meta’s $10 billion data center project near Monroe, Louisiana, the tech giant pledged an additional $200 million investment in local road and water infrastructure upgrades.”
• On a separate $10 billion data center in Lebanon, Indiana, Meta earmarked $45 million in public road improvements and another $75 million in public water infrastructure projects. The tech giant also launched the Boone County Career Collaborative, a workforce development initiative that connects students in the area with local employers to develop skills and explore career pathways.
• As part of its $12 billion data center campus in Louisiana, Amazon will also invest $400 million for local water infrastructure upgrades alongside a $250,000 community fund to support STEM education in the area.

Predictions: A Plethora of Tangential Buildouts

As negotiations for data centers and related developments unfold in states across the country, one thing remains quite clear for builders: the demand is not going to subside anytime soon. Examining the opportunities, Matthew Thibault observes that it’s not only the big players winning giant data center contracts that can come out on the winning side of the AI infrastructure buildout, noting: “While some builders will leverage the boom into lucrative construction contracts to manage the work, other firms can get in on the infrastructure, the power plants, the roads and a plethora of other tangential buildouts needed to support the work.” 

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