What it’s like when a data center moves in

For the Verge, Lauren Feiner visited Loudoun County, Virginia, which used to be the location of AOL headquarters. After the dot-com bust, the county opened the empty AOL buildings and infrastructure to data centers. The plan worked and was humming along, until the past couple years when hyperscalers suddenly needed a lot more space and resources.

Loudoun County residents are also starting to take notice. Within the past few years, data centers have been elevated from an unremarkable part of daily life in Loudoun to something that many residents now think about every day. For some, it’s the constant hum they hear from their decks; for others, it’s the transmission towers that loom over their favorite green space, or the surprise call from their energy utility that one of those towers could go up in their own backyard. While residents recognize that data centers have brought a lot of prosperity to the county, they’re beginning to wonder how much more they can take.

The residents interviewed in this story seem about as conflicted as the people using generative AI. On the one hand, the technology brings benefits to the community in the form of jobs, reduced property taxes, and increasing home values. On the other hand, some neighbors get a giant tower built in front of their home’s sight line or light shining through their windows all night.