The buildout, and the backlash
A sourced map with three layers: where large data centers are operating, under construction, or proposed; where communities have blocked, paused, or restricted them; and the water, power, zoning, and pollution disputes they have triggered. Facilities are circles by status; pushback and incidents are diamonds folded under each state.
Zoomed out, each indigo bubble is the number of facilities in that state, over a density shade. Tap a bubble (or zoom in) to drop to individual sites; diamonds mark pushback and incidents. Drag to pan, and tap any marker for the story and source. 14 major facilities on record so far, alongside pushback and incidents. This grows as cases are verified.
Diamonds on the map mark individual events -- pushback such as moratoriums and rejections, and incidents such as water, power, zoning, and pollution disputes -- listed under the state where each happened, alongside the facilities there.
Maine lawmakers passed LD 307, which would have been the first statewide pause on large data centers pending a study of grid and electricity-cost impacts. Governor Janet Mills vetoed it for lacking an exemption for a planned site in Jay, writing that she otherwise would have signed it.
East Vincent Township officials unanimously rejected a 1.9-million-square-foot data center proposed for the historic Pennhurst State School site after months of resident campaigning. Backers cited reuse of a derelict property; opponents cited scale, traffic, and historic preservation.
Amazon's large AWS campus near New Carlisle is one of Indiana's biggest data center buildouts, built in part to serve Anthropic AI workloads. Indiana has become a leading magnet for hyperscale projects.
A 400 MW Google campus in Allen County near Fort Wayne, one of several large projects that made Indiana a top destination for new data centers.
Community pushback
A data center rezoning proposal in Kosciusko County failed unanimously, and nearby Leesburg refused to rezone 554 acres, part of a wave of rural Indiana rejections. Developers say the projects bring tax base; residents cite farmland, water, and bypassed public review on unincorporated land.
Incidents & disputes
More than a dozen bullets were fired at the home of Indianapolis council member Ron Gibson after he backed rezoning for a proposed data center, with a handwritten No Data Centers note left at the scene. The episode underscored how heated local data center fights have become, even as most opposition remains peaceful petitions and lawsuits.
One of Google's largest and longest-running US data center campuses, in Pottawattamie County. Iowa's cheap power and tax incentives made it an early hyperscale hub.
After the Festus City Council approved a 6-billion-dollar CRG data center over public objection, voters removed four of the eight council members and a group filed suit seeking to reverse the rezoning. The developer and city point to investment and tax revenue; opponents cite a lack of public say over power, water, and noise.
Microsoft's Fairwater campus in Mount Pleasant rose on land first assembled for the abandoned Foxconn project. It became a flashpoint over secrecy after reporting that several Wisconsin communities signed nondisclosure agreements with developers.
Community pushback
Port Washington voters approved, by about 66 percent, an ordinance requiring large tax-incremental districts of 10 million dollars or more to first win voter approval, after a grassroots petition. Supporters call it local control; developers warn it adds uncertainty for investment.
A 350 MW Microsoft AI campus in the Atlanta metro, part of Georgia's rapid emergence as a major data center state alongside mounting local moratorium fights.
Meta's multi-gigawatt Hyperion campus in Richland Parish, near Rayville, is among the largest single AI data center projects announced in the US. The state approved large tax incentives and dedicated gas generation to power it.
The Baltimore City Council passed a one-year moratorium on data centers drawing 10 MW or more, ordering a study of energy infrastructure, ratepayer impact, and public health. Supporters of development say the city risks losing investment to nearby Virginia.
The Orange County Board of Commissioners voted 6-0 for a one-year pause on large data centers, including AI and crypto, to revise land-use rules before applications arrive. Backers of the pause frame it as planning ahead rather than a ban.
The Tulsa City Council voted unanimously for a nine-month moratorium on new data centers, with residents citing siting in underserved neighborhoods and grid impacts. Industry groups argue such pauses chiefly delay projects and forgo investment.
xAI built its Colossus supercomputer in the Boxtown area of South Memphis and a second campus across the line in Southaven, Mississippi, to train its Grok model. The site is one of the most contested data centers in the country over its self-supplied gas-turbine power and water use.
Incidents & disputes
To power xAI's Colossus, the company ran dozens of methane gas turbines in majority-Black South Memphis, which the Southern Environmental Law Center and NAACP say made it likely the largest source of smog-forming NOx in the city and was done without proper air permits. xAI classified the units as temporary and mobile and later sought permits; the Shelby County Health Department approved an air permit in July 2025 over more than 2,000 public comments.
xAI's Memphis facilities can draw on the order of a million gallons a day from the Memphis Sand aquifer, the sole drinking-water source for the city, prompting Protect Our Aquifer to press for fees and a wastewater-reuse plant. The company points to a recycling facility meant to replace fresh water; advocates want enforceable limits before the aquifer is over-drawn.
The flagship campus of the Stargate venture backed by OpenAI, Oracle, and SoftBank, planned as one of the largest AI training sites in the US. It anchors a buildout the partners say will eventually reach hundreds of billions of dollars.
A 750 MW Bitcoin-mining and compute site in Childress, among the largest single-site loads in Texas. Crypto-mining sites like it increasingly pivot toward AI compute.
A 700 MW crypto-mining campus in Milam County built on the site of a former aluminum smelter. Its large, flexible load is often cited in debates over grid strain and demand response.
Community pushback
Hill County commissioners voted for a one-year moratorium on data center construction in unincorporated areas, the first such pause by a Texas county, after residents raised noise, water, and electricity concerns about a proposed 300-acre project near Hillsboro.
Ashburn and surrounding Loudoun County host the densest concentration of data centers on earth, nicknamed Data Center Alley, with hundreds of operating and in-development campuses. It is both an economic engine and the center of Virginia's zoning and power-cost fights.
Community pushback
Hanover County officials voted against rezoning agricultural land for a 430-acre data center, one of several Virginia localities tightening approvals even as the state leads the nation in data centers. Supporters cited tax revenue; opponents cited farmland and infrastructure.
The Loudoun County board ended by-right data center zoning, so new projects in the nation's densest market now require a public hearing and planning review rather than staff-level approval. The county still credits data center revenue with cutting residential taxes, so officials frame it as added scrutiny, not a ban.
Incidents & disputes
As data center demand surged across the PJM grid that serves Northern Virginia, some areas saw sharp increases in wholesale power prices, with one Bloomberg analysis finding monthly prices up as much as 267 percent from 2020 to 2025. Utilities and developers say new large customers also fund grid upgrades and that special rate classes can shield households; consumer advocates counter that ratepayers are absorbing the cost of the buildout.
A large hyperscale campus in Mesa, part of the fast-growing Phoenix-area data center market. Water-efficient cooling is a recurring condition of approval in the arid region.
Community pushback
The Chandler City Council unanimously rejected a 422,000-square-foot data center proposed by Active Infrastructure, despite lobbying that included former Senator Kyrsten Sinema. Supporters cited tax revenue, while residents and council members cited limited jobs and strain on power and water.
After heavy public opposition over water and power, the Tucson City Council voted against annexing land for the large Project Blue data center. Pima County later approved a version with conditions requiring air cooling and approved water sources, so backers say the project advances while critics count the city vote as a win for local control.
Switch's Citadel campus in the Tahoe Reno Industrial Center is one of the largest data centers in the western US. Nevada water and tax debates increasingly shadow new desert siting.
A proposed multi-phase gigasite in Millard County billed as one of the largest planned compute campuses in the country, paired with on-site generation. Like many headline GW-scale announcements, its full build-out timeline is uncertain.
This map is deliberately broad on one axis and narrow on another. It does not try to plot every data center in the country -- public directories already list thousands of colocation and cloud sites. Instead it maps the major facilities driving today's buildout (operating, under construction, and proposed), and pairs them with the civic story: where communities have blocked, paused, or restricted projects, and where the buildout has triggered concrete disputes over water, power, zoning, or pollution. Facility locations are seeded from public trackers; pushback and incidents are tied to primary or reputable secondary sources and verified before they go on the map.
Know of a facility, a local fight, or a dispute that is not here yet? Send a sourced article and it will be reviewed.
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