If anti-growth activists and NIMBYs succeed in blocking the infrastructure behind artificial intelligence, cloud computing, and digital commerce, America won’t stop needing those services. It will simply build less of that infrastructure here and hand more of the strategic advantage to China.That is the real trade-off.
WE’VE SEEN THE DATA CENTER HYSTERICS BEFORE
Data centers are the physical component of “the cloud.” They are not abstractions. They are buildings filled with servers, storage, networking gear, cooling systems, and power infrastructure that keep modern life running.
Cisco and Amazon Web Services both describe data centers as the physical facilities that house the computing and storage resources behind digital applications and data. The cloud has walls, wires, pipes, and payroll. It is infrastructure.
That makes data centers the factories of the digital age. In the 20th century, local leaders fought to bring in manufacturing plants because they meant jobs, a tax base, supplier networks, and long-term economic capacity.
