00:00On the steps of Virginia's capital, protesters delivered a blunt message to their governor.
00:06Virginia does not belong to big tech.
00:09And in one week, that fight goes national, with demonstrations planned in 22 states,
00:15from neighbors suing the world's most powerful AI data center over relentless noise,
00:21to a judge forcing Google's secret water numbers into the open.
00:25The battle over America's data center boom is escalating on every front.
00:32We begin in Richmond, where dozens of residents from Hanover,
00:37Henrico, and communities across central Virginia gathered at the historic bell tower on Capitol Square with
00:44one message.
00:46Virginia does not belong to big tech.
00:49The grassroots coalition is demanding that Governor Abigail Spanberger and state lawmakers pause.
00:55New data center approvals until stronger statewide protections are in place.
01:01Their frustration has numbers behind it.
01:04Data centers already consume 26% of all electricity used in the Commonwealth.
01:10Along with more than 2 billion gallons of water every year,
01:14speakers called for an end to non-disclosure agreements,
01:18an end to backroom rezoning deals,
01:21corporate tax accountability,
01:23and legally binding community benefit agreements.
01:27One resident summed up the mood from the podium.
01:30We are bearing the burden.
01:32Not them.
01:33Organizers say the rally is only the beginning of a sustained pressure campaign on the General
01:39Assembly.
01:41That kind of frustration is now making its way into courtrooms in Sturtevant, Wisconsin.
01:48Three residents have filed a class action lawsuit against Microsoft over its
01:53$7.3 billion Fairwater campus.
01:57The facility CEO Sadia Nadella has called the world's most powerful AI data center.
02:03The suit covers every household within a mile and a half of the site.
02:08More than 1,000 homes stretching into neighboring Mount Pleasant.
02:13Plaintiffs describe noise that is not only excessive but consistent and pervasive.
02:18Blaming diesel generators, chillers, cooling towers, air handlers, and condenser fans running
02:26around the clock.
02:27They allege Microsoft failed to build adequate acoustic barriers to keep the sound on its own
02:33property.
02:35And it isn't just noise.
02:37Neighbors complain of construction dust so thick one resident called the area a dust bowl.
02:43Along with extreme nighttime light pollution washing over what used to be quiet farmland.
02:50And the backlash is about to go national.
02:53A conservative advocacy group called Humans First is organizing a nationwide day of protest
02:59against AI data centers on July 18th, with more than 50 demonstrations planned across 22
03:07states.
03:08Texas, now the country's leader in data center development, will see 11 protests, with seven
03:16more in Florida.
03:17The group is led by Amy Kramer, a former Tea Party organizer and longtime Trump ally, and
03:24it's targeting rising utility bills, water demand, noise, land use changes, and what it calls
03:32national security risks tied to rapid AI expansion.
03:36Their argument leans on striking numbers.
03:39More than 4,000 data centers have already been built in the United States.
03:44Yet a recent Gallup poll found 70% of Americans don't want one in their own community.
03:51Organizers say the goal is to force local, state, and federal officials to finally respond.
03:59Water sits at the center of that anger.
04:02And in Virginia, Google fought hard to keep its numbers hidden.
04:06After journalist Henri Gindraux of the Roanoke Rambler sued the Western Virginia Water Authority,
04:13a Roanoke judge became the first in the state to rule that a data center's water use cannot
04:19be shielded as proprietary information, the released records were startling.
04:25Google's Botetot County campus was initially projected to use one to two million gallons of
04:31water per day.
04:33Documents later showed that figure climbing to eight million, and the latest disclosures
04:38cited by rally organizers point to 11 to 12 million gallons per day.
04:45Meanwhile, Google is planning three more campuses across more than 1,500 acres in Chesterfield County.
04:52A $9 billion bet.
04:54And this week, residents finally get their first chance to question company representatives
05:00face-to-face at open house meetings.
05:04Behind every one of these fights sits the same driving force.
05:09Power.
05:10In West Texas, Chevron has signed a 20-year agreement to supply electricity for a massive Microsoft
05:17data center campus near Pecos.
05:20The venture, known as Project Kilby, pairs Microsoft's planned campus with a co-located natural gas
05:28plant developed by Chevron's Energy.
05:31Forge won an investment firm Engine No. 1.
05:34At full build-out it will deliver roughly 2.67 gigawatts of capacity.
05:40Enough electricity for about 2 million homes.
05:44Using large GE Vernova turbines.
05:46With additional generation from Caterpillar's solar turbines.
05:51First power is targeted for 2028.
05:54And Chevron expects a final investment decision by the end of this year.
06:00Notably, the plant will run on non-potable, brackish groundwater rather than drinking water.
06:06A direct nod to the water concerns now swirling around projects exactly like this one.
06:14State and local governments are responding to all of this pressure.
06:18And Montana just joined the movement.
06:21Missoula County commissioners voted unanimously to adopt a one-year moratorium on new or expanding
06:28data centers.
06:30The first such pause in Montana history.
06:33Thirty members of the public spoke at the hearing.
06:36Every single one in favor.
06:38And the final vote was met with loud applause from the audience.
06:42The interim zoning rule covers the entire county outside the city of Missoula.
06:48With commissioners citing potential impacts on public health, safety, and natural resources.
06:55The county must now launch a study within 30 days to confirm an emergency exists and chart the
07:01path forward.
07:03And the pause can be extended a second year with another hearing.
07:07Missoula is far from alone.
07:10According to the U.S. data center moratorium tracker.
07:14Fifty-five counties nationwide have now enacted moratoriums on new data center proposals.
07:21Yet despite the moratoriums and the lawsuits.
07:25Construction keeps pressing forward.
07:27In LaPorte, Indiana, Microsoft has broken ground on phase one of a data center campus that keeps
07:35getting bigger.
07:36The initial build covers 500 acres on Boyd Boulevard with an investment topping one
07:42billion dollars.
07:44And Microsoft aims to have three buildings operating by 2029.
07:49With three more to follow on the same site.
07:52Then comes the real expansion.
07:54Eleven additional data center structures planned across 1,300 acres of adjacent farmland.
08:01The company is purchasing, pushing the combined footprint toward 1,800 acres and a construction
08:07timeline of up to 10 years.
08:11Microsoft is also partnering with Ivy Tech Community College to open Indiana's first Microsoft data.
08:18Center Academy, training local workers for the operations jobs the campus promises to bring to Northwest
08:25Indiana.
08:27And the money behind this build-out shows no sign of slowing.
08:32Switch.
08:33The data center operator majority owned by Digital Bridge.
08:37is raising roughly $2 billion in a private funding round led by Andreessen Horowitz.
08:43Which is committing $400 million of its own.
08:47The deal could value Switch at nearly $50 billion including debt.
08:52And the company has hired JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs to run the raise ahead of a potential
08:58public offering as early as next year.
09:02Switch operates major campuses in Nevada, Michigan, Texas, and Georgia, serving customers like NVIDIA,
09:11Google, and Tesla.
09:13It's a reminder of the sheer scale of capital chasing this industry.
09:18Hyperscaler spending on AI infrastructure is projected to hit $750 billion.
09:24This year alone, even as communities from Virginia to Montana push back harder than ever.
09:31The numbers keep getting bigger.
09:34And so does the fight.
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09:54How many of mobile products are connected by domain eSom, even at least 10 times?
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09:56But we've discussed the challenge of the public offering that it might start working on AI.
09:57We've been looking forward to handling how many intertwined lives, both grabwerements in
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