Nine hundred Utahns showed up to a county commission hearing and forced Kevin O'Leary's city-sized data center into a 75% scale-back — and it's now a national story that Congress is watching. Here's everything happening in U.S. data centers right now.
🏘️ **COMMUNITY** — Utah's proposed 40,000-acre Stratos Project in Box Elder County was set to consume 9 gigawatts of electricity — more than double the entire state's usage. Over 900 people packed the county hearing, 300 more rallied outside, and investor Kevin O'Leary admitted "We pissed off a lot of people." He agreed to a 75% scale-back. Congress held hearings on June 11 as the protests went national. Residents cite threats to the Great Salt Lake's water supply.
⚖️ **LEGAL** — New York's legislature passed the Responsible Data Center Development Act (S10642) in a historic vote: Senate 44-16, Assembly 102-39. If signed by Gov. Kathy Hochul, New York would become the first state in the nation to impose a statewide moratorium on large data center permits. The one-year ban would freeze new environmental approvals for any facility drawing 20 megawatts or more. Hochul has not committed to signing.
⚡ **POWER/REGULATORY** — Ohio lawmakers unveiled what may be the nation's most sweeping data center regulation bill, targeting tax incentive rollbacks, nondisclosure agreement bans, water use reporting, and ratepayer billing protections in a single package. A separate citizen petition is circulating for a constitutional amendment to ban large-scale data centers in Ohio. Five other Heartland states — Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Oklahoma, and Wisconsin — are advancing similar legislation.
🏗️ **NEW BUILD** — CloudBurst broke ground on its debut 1.2 GW data center campus in the San Marcos area of Central Texas, one of the largest data center projects ever announced in the U.S. The first 50 MW phase is due online by Q4 2026. The project highlights a growing divide: while some states pass moratoriums, Texas keeps building.
💰 **INVESTMENT** — CoreWeave priced $1.25 billion in dollar bonds and €2 billion in euro notes on June 11 — the first euro-denominated junk bonds ever sold by a U.S. AI infrastructure company. Applied Digital separately raised $1.59 billion in junk bonds to fund a fourth data center building for CoreWeave in North Dakota. The euro orderbook topped €7 billion — nearly 3.5× oversubscribed.
