00:00OpenAI is about to pour more than $30 billion into a single stretch of Georgia
00:05countryside, a campus that would draw as much power as a major city.
00:11And from Virginia horse country to Texas ranch land,
00:15Americans are deciding whether they'll let projects like this into their backyards.
00:21We begin near Savannah, Georgia, where OpenAI has unveiled Project Camellia,
00:27a $30 billion, 3.2 gigawatt data center campus across 1,400 acres of Effingham County.
00:36It's the first data center OpenAI will design and build itself,
00:40powered through a 25-year agreement with Georgia Power,
00:44with delivery phased in between 2028 and 2032.
00:49The company clearly knows a backlash is brewing.
00:52It's promising $80 million in community benefits,
00:56up to $71 million in software credits for Georgia students,
01:01up to 1,000 megawatts of flexible demand response to protect the grid,
01:06and closed-loop cooling to keep water use down.
01:10OpenAI even pledged an independent annual audit of those commitments,
01:15a sign of just how carefully big tech is now courting the communities it builds in.
01:21But not every community is being won over.
01:25In Goochland County, Virginia,
01:28residents packed a meeting at Goochland High School
01:30to confront Denver-based developer tracked over
01:33its proposed Tuckahoe Creek Technology Park,
01:37an 871-acre campus that could draw up to 900 megawatts of power.
01:44Supporters point to billions in potential economic activity and tax revenue for the county.
01:50But neighbors pressed the company on water consumption,
01:54noise, and the heat these facilities throw off.
01:57One retiree, Cynthia Haas,
02:00said she and her husband moved to Goochland for a quiet retirement,
02:04and that a data center campus next door would completely ruin the peace they came for.
02:11The proposal still has a long road ahead.
02:14The Planning Commission and Board of Supervisors must both sign off,
02:18with key hearings expected this fall.
02:22That opposition is now making its way into courtrooms in central Texas.
02:27A citizens group called the Data Center Action Coalition,
02:31joined by Guadalupe County residents Cara Finleason,
02:35Barry Lindsay,
02:37and Tori Martin,
02:38has sued their own county commissioner's court.
02:41The suit seeks to halt two massive projects,
02:45Cloudburst and Palomino Alpha,
02:47that together would convert more than 1,700 acres of rural land into over 4 million
02:53square feet of data centers.
02:56The plaintiffs allege the deals were negotiated privately,
02:59with insufficient public notice and conflicts of interest,
03:04and could hand the developers an estimated $150 million in property tax abatements.
03:12They're asking a judge to invalidate the county's approvals entirely,
03:16and to freeze the agreements while the case plays out in court.
03:21And Texas isn't the only place where neighbors are squaring off against giants.
03:26In Louisa County, Virginia,
03:30homeowner Austin Newsom is taking on Amazon in federal court,
03:34and he just cleared a major hurdle.
03:36U.S. District Judge Jasmine Yoon refused to throw out Newsom's private nuisance claim over the data.
03:43Center rising directly across the road from his home,
03:47Newsom says the sheer scale of ground disturbance has upended the local water table and fouled his
03:53tap water, and that customers have stopped bringing boats to his business.
03:59Central VA Marine,
04:01until construction ends,
04:03the judge did dismiss one claim seeking injunctive relief as a stand-alone cause of action.
04:09And Amazon's ultimate liability is far from decided.
04:13But Newsom's request for a preliminary injunction is still on the table.
04:18And his case is now headed deeper into federal court.
04:23Cases like these are exactly why Washington is moving.
04:27President Trump expanded his ratepayer protection pledge,
04:31pulling utilities and state governments into a commitment that big tech,
04:36not families,
04:37pays for the grid build-out data center's demand.
04:40The White House says the pledge now covers roughly 80% of the power delivered to
04:45American homes and businesses,
04:48with more than 220 signatories,
04:5127 data center developers,
04:5455 utility companies,
04:57105 electric cooperatives,
05:00and 23 governors.
05:02Google,
05:03Microsoft,
05:04Meta,
05:05Oracle,
05:06XAI,
05:07OpenAI,
05:08and Amazon had already signed on,
05:11formally committing to fund or build the energy infrastructure their facilities require.
05:16The announcement came at the Environmental Protection Agency,
05:21flanked by Energy Secretary Chris Wright and the governors of Louisiana,
05:26Georgia,
05:27Nebraska,
05:28and Idaho.
05:29The pressure on the grid is only half the story.
05:33Water tells the other half.
05:35California lawmakers have passed a bill that would make the state's data centers report their water
05:42consumption.
05:43Under the measure from Assembly Member Diane Popon,
05:47operators would have to disclose projected water use before getting a business license.
05:52Under penalty of perjury,
05:55and certify their actual usage every year at renewal,
05:58the bill even creates a first-of-its-kind indirect water use metric.
06:03Counting the water consumed to generate the electricity these facilities burn.
06:09But its fate is anything but certain.
06:11Governor Gavin Newsom vetoed a similar measure last year.
06:15And the tech industry is lobbying hard against this one.
06:19All eyes are now on the governor's desk in Sacramento.
06:23Where a signature,
06:24or another veto,
06:25will set the template for every other state watching.
06:30State capitals aren't the only ones acting.
06:33City halls are too.
06:35In Sheboygan,
06:36Wisconsin,
06:37the Common Council voted unanimously to freeze zoning and building permits for any data center.
06:43larger than 10,000 square feet.
06:47The reason is simple.
06:48The city has no zoning code for data centers at all.
06:52And officials want time to write one before the industry comes knocking.
06:57The moratorium runs 12 months.
07:00With an option to extend another six.
07:03The vote wasn't without friction.
07:05Alders spend a lengthy debate probing whether developers could exploit loopholes and work around
07:11the city's framework before the new rules land.
07:15Sheboygan now joins a fast-growing list of American communities.
07:19From Colorado to Maryland to Florida.
07:22That have hit pause on hyperscale development until the rules catch up with the boom.
07:29Yet despite all that resistance,
07:32money keeps flooding in.
07:34And the numbers are staggering.
07:36A consortium of the AI Infrastructure Partnership,
07:39Abu Dhabi's MGX,
07:41and BlackRock's Global Infrastructure Partners has closed its $40 billion acquisition of
07:48Plano, Texas-based Aligned Data Centers.
07:52One of the largest data center deals ever completed.
07:55The group bought 100% of Aligned from funds managed by Macquarie Asset Management.
08:02Then immediately committed another $5 billion to fuel expansion.
08:07Aligned operates 51 campuses with more than 6.4 gigawatts of operational and
08:13planned capacity.
08:15And this is just the opening move.
08:17It's the first investment for AIP,
08:20which plans to deploy $30 billion in equity.
08:24A figure that could reach $100 billion once debt is included.
08:28The capital behind this build-out shows no sign of slowing.
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