00:00In Texas, the county that dared to ban data centers just paid the price.
00:05Literally, the $100 million lawsuit is over, the ban is dead, and taxpayers are covering
00:12the developer's legal bills.
00:14From a judge protecting a reporter, to Cleveland voting 14 to 1 to hit pause, to a small Louisiana
00:22town letting Meta buy its water plant, the fight over America's data center boom is
00:28getting personal.
00:30And expensive.
00:31We begin in Hill County, Texas, where the first county in the state to ban data centers just
00:39watched its rebellion end in surrender.
00:41And a bill.
00:42Back in May, commissioners voted 3 to 2 to impose a one-year moratorium on new data center construction.
00:5020 days later, developer RCM Hill hit the county with a federal lawsuit demanding more than
00:57$100 million.
00:59arguing that Texas counties have no legal authority to block development at all.
01:05Two weeks after that, commissioners unanimously rescinded their own ban.
01:10Now comes the final chapter.
01:13RCM Hill has dismissed the case with prejudice, meaning it can never be refiled.
01:19And under the settlement, Hill County will pay $100,000 to cover the developer's attorney fees.
01:26County Judge Shane Brassel says the money comes from a contingency fund.
01:31The entire legal war lasted just 43 days.
01:37If Hill County shows what happens when local officials fight the industry,
01:42Kansas just showed what happens when they get close to it.
01:45protesters gathered outside Topeka's docking building as Kansas municipal utilities hosted a
01:52two-day summit teaching city and county leaders how to plan for data centers and other large power
01:58loads.
02:00The meeting was closed to the media, cameras had to record from the sidewalk, and that secrecy became the story.
02:08Megan Ryan, founder of the group Protect Kansas, called the summit a timeshare pitch designed to teach local leaders how
02:16to sell data centers to
02:18their own constituents, their own constituents, her warning was blunt, international companies, not Kansas companies, are trying to buy up
02:27the state's land and take its water.
02:30As officials filed in and out, protesters lined the entrance with signs, a preview of the national day of protest
02:38planned for this Saturday.
02:41Some developers aren't just fighting counties.
02:44One went after a journalist.
02:46And a judge just shut it down.
02:49In Southern California, a San Diego judge threw out a defamation lawsuit filed by developer Sebastian Rucci in Imperial Valley
02:59Computer Manufacturing
03:00against public radio station KPBS and reporter Corey Suzuki.
03:06Over his coverage of a proposed data center in Imperial County,
03:10Judge Cynthia Freeland struck the complaint under California's anti-SLAPP statute.
03:17The law built to stop lawsuits designed to silence speech.
03:21Finding the claims lacked legal or factual support.
03:24The suit had attacked Suzuki's reporting that the project would demand 750,000 gallons of water a day.
03:33His description of the developers pushed to skip environmental review.
03:37And his account of Rucci's past criminal charges.
03:41The judge found none of it false.
03:43For local reporters covering a trillion-dollar build-out, it's a landmark win.
03:50From courtrooms to council chambers, Cleveland just became the largest city in Ohio to hit pause.
03:57On Wednesday night, city council voted 14-1 to freeze new standalone data center projects for three months.
04:05While City Hall writes zoning rules for an industry it currently has none for.
04:11The original proposal called for a pause of nearly a year.
04:15Council whittled it down to 90 days.
04:18With the option to extend three months more.
04:21And carved out in-house server rooms that companies run for their own use.
04:26The vote came despite high-profile pressure.
04:29Former acting CIA director Michael Morrill publicly argued that a pause would weaken Cleveland's competitiveness and help China in the
04:39race for AI leadership.
04:41Council wasn't persuaded.
04:43And Cleveland wasn't alone.
04:45The very same day, Pasco County, Florida approved its own moratorium on new data center construction and development.
04:54The same battle played out very differently in Arkansas.
04:58And it shows just how messy these votes are getting.
05:02Pulaski County's Quorum Court advanced a data center moratorium this week.
05:07But only after gutting it, the original, sweeping version failed 6-3.
05:13Losing momentum when one of its backers, Justice of the Peace Julie Blackwood,
05:19left the meeting ill, in its place, Justice Diane Curry introduced an alternative that passed 8-to-1.
05:26With one enormous exception, it exempts a VAIO Digital's $6 billion project in Wrightsville.
05:34The very development that sparked the fight, Justice Donna Massey called the carve-out a maneuver designed to defeat the
05:42moratorium's entire purpose.
05:44Even the county's own attorney warned that neither version fully protects against lawsuits.
05:51And that a VAIO could sue over delays under either one.
05:55A moratorium with a $6 billion hole in it.
05:59That's where the law stands tonight.
06:02Most of these fights center on power.
06:05In northeast Louisiana, it's water.
06:08And Mehta is writing the checks.
06:10The town of Delhi, population about 2,500, has agreed to keep supplying water to Mehta's massive Hyperion data center
06:20campus expanding in neighboring Richland Parish.
06:24And Mayor Jesse Washington says Mehta will cover every dollar of the cost.
06:28The deal includes upgrades to Delhi's existing water system and an entirely new water treatment plant.
06:35Expected to open sometime next year.
06:39With the town collecting fresh revenue from water and sewer service tied to Mehta's operations.
06:45Not everyone is reassured.
06:48Margie Vickner, prey of the Sierra Club, warns the facility's water demand could compete with local agriculture.
06:56And says the impact on nearby farms deserves close monitoring.
07:00It's the trade-off playing out across rural America.
07:03Infrastructure a small town could never afford.
07:07In exchange for a neighbor that never stops drinking.
07:11And despite every protest and pause you've seen tonight.
07:15The deals keep coming.
07:17Hyperscale Data, which trades under the ticker GPUS.
07:21Announced it expects to sign an agreement to provide AI compute and NeoCloud services to a.
07:28California headquartered AI company at its Michigan data center campus.
07:33Chief Executive Will Horn says the deal won't match the size of the company's recently announced.
07:40$1.2 billion master services agreement.
07:43But calls it strategically significant for a different reason.
07:48Hyperscale Data will deliver the NeoCloud services directly.
07:52Evolving from a landlord renting out data center space into a company selling integrated AI.
07:58Computing itself.
08:00Computing itself.
08:01Details on the customer.
08:02Contract terms and deployment schedule are promised in the coming weeks.
08:07Investors like what they heard anyway.
08:09Shares jumped roughly 7% on the announcement.
08:13In this market, even the expectation of an AI deal moves money.
08:19Which brings us to the money behind it all.
08:22Our kicker.
08:23QTS.
08:24The data center giant owned by Blackstone.
08:28Went to the loan market asking for about a billion dollars.
08:31Demand was so strong that it more than tripled the deal to 3.25 billion.
08:36And canceled a separate $1 billion bond sale it no longer needed.
08:42JP Morgan is leading the loan.
08:45Moody's rates it at the lowest rung of investment grade.
08:48And lenders took comfort from one detail above all.
08:52Microsoft is a tenant in the operational data centers securing the debt.
08:57The money will retire outstanding construction loans and other liabilities as QTS keeps building at.
09:04A furious pace.
09:06Step back and look at this week.
09:08Counties paying settlements.
09:11Cities voting freezes.
09:13Protestors on the sidewalk.
09:15And Wall Street lining up to hand a data center builder more than $3 billion.
09:20That collision is the story of this industry.
09:24Thanks for watching.
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