00:00A Georgia lawsuit claims officials hid a 3.2-gigawatt OpenAI data center from the voters who would live next
00:08to it.
00:08In Utah, Kevin O'Leary's giant campus faces three lawsuits, and a main town just banned data centers before a
00:17single developer applied.
00:20Georgia is where this story begins, and the allegations are explosive.
00:25A conservation group called 100 Miles and 5 Effingham County residents have sued the county's Industrial Development Authority and an
00:35OpenAI affiliate, claiming a 3.2-gigawatt data center was negotiated in secret.
00:42The project, known as Project Gateway, would cover 1,440 acres and be the largest data center in the southeast,
00:50according to the lawsuit.
00:52Officials signed a nondisclosure agreement in October 2025, used a codename on meeting agendas, and discussed nearly $900 million in
01:03tax abatements behind closed doors, violating Georgia's Open Meetings Act.
01:09The suit quotes board member Eric Johnson as saying that if the public had been told, they would have said
01:16no, and that the county is not a democracy.
01:19Plaintiffs want the tax deal and land sale voided.
01:24That secrecy fight has a counterpart in Utah, where a project backed by Kevin O'Leary is surviving a pile
01:31of legal challenges.
01:32The Stratus project in Hansel Valley, Box Elder County, would start with 1.5 gigawatts of power and could grow
01:41to 9.
01:42Three lawsuits remain unresolved, two in state court challenging how the project was approved through the military installation.
01:51Development Authority, an unelected board, and a federal defamation suit against O'Leary and Fox News over claims about critics.
02:00Despite that, O'Leary Digital CEO Paul Polongian says the project is not on hold, and that engineering, environmental, and
02:11economic studies are underway.
02:13A revised water rights application was expected this week, and the company says full build-out would use under 900
02:21,000 gallons a day after recycling, with annual public reporting.
02:28Legal pressure is also coming from the neighbors who live next door.
02:32In southwest Michigan, two residents have filed what attorneys describe as the first-class action in the country over data.
02:41Center noise.
02:42The defendant is Alliance Cloud Services, which operates a hyperscale facility on East Prairie Rond Street in Dowajac that began
02:51running in.
02:52Early 2025, the suit covers roughly 1,300 residential properties within a mile.
03:00Plaintiff Lindy Valenzuela says it is impossible to stay outside more than 10 minutes without
03:05getting a headache.
03:07Because the facility hums around the clock,
03:10the lawsuit seeks compensation for residents whose enjoyment of their property and its value have
03:16been harmed.
03:18The timing matters.
03:19Because the company has just announced it bought another 48 and a half acres to expand the
03:25campus, which suggests the noise could get worse before it gets better.
03:31And in Maine, one town is not waiting for a developer to show up.
03:36The Paris Select Board voted unanimously on September 28th for a 180-day
03:43moratorium on data center development, and directed the planning board to draft an ordinance that
03:49would permanently ban them.
03:51Selectman Robert Ripley said the town's infrastructure could not handle the amount of power and
03:57data these facilities consume.
04:00Board members called it a preemptive strike, noting that the town's abundant water and rural
04:06character could attract developers.
04:08The local action follows Governor Janet Mills' April veto of a first-in-the-nation statewide
04:1518-month moratorium, which pushed the fight down to municipalities such as Bangor and several
04:22Oxford County communities.
04:24If the planning board and select board approve a permanent ban, Paris residents would get the
04:30final vote.
04:32Why do these fights keep escalating?
04:34The answer is power.
04:37And the Chesapeake Bay offers a striking example.
04:40Plans obtained by the Baltimore Banner Show Amazon Web Services sketching a data center complex
04:46on roughly 2,000 acres at Constellation Energy's Calvert Cliffs site in Lusbee, Maryland.
04:55The concept calls for seven facilities across three campuses, each building about 225,000 square
05:02feet with cooling tanks.
05:04The project would demand 500 megawatts, enough electricity for more than 375,000 homes, more
05:13than 150 acres of trees would be cleared, and the footprint touches historic properties including
05:20Perrins Park.
05:21Amazon presented to a Calvert County community meeting in March, but no formal agreement between
05:27Amazon and Constellation had been announced.
05:30And the discussions were described as preliminary, so the nuclear connection remains unconfirmed.
05:38That secrecy theme is now reaching statehouses.
05:42Virginia Governor Abigail Spanberger announced a data center accountability framework on September
05:4818th that bans non-disclosure agreements for projects of 25 megawatts or larger.
05:55A direct response to residents who say deals are cut before they hear a word.
06:01The plan also offers incentives for developers to install solar and wind backup systems rather
06:07than natural gas or diesel generators.
06:11And Titans permitting commercial and environmental oversight, Virginia hosts the largest concentration
06:18of data centers on Earth, so rules written in Richmond carry weight far beyond the state.
06:25Spanberger said community members are demanding action.
06:28The move follows similar steps by governors in New York, Texas, and Pennsylvania, although
06:36parts of the framework will still need approval from state legislators during the coming year.
06:43Yet despite the backlash, construction is pressing forward, and some developers are trying to win
06:49over skeptics.
06:51Lambda, the AI cloud company preparing for an IPO, plans a new data center in Chateau, in Mays County,
07:00Oklahoma, inside the Mid-America Industrial Park about 47 miles east of Tulsa.
07:06Lambda, the company is pledging $500 million in taxes over the next 10 years and says it will
07:13cover the cost of any new infrastructure needed to power and operate the facility.
07:19A direct answer to ratepayer fears.
07:22The site will use closed-loop cooling to reduce water consumption and will be grid-reactive,
07:28meaning it can adjust computing loads during peak demand.
07:32Lambda already operates 15 data centers across the country, counts Microsoft and Anthropoc among
07:39its customers, and says it is targeting gigawatts of compute by 2030.
07:45And the financial commitment behind all of this is staggering.
07:50Anthropoc signed an $11.6 billion seven-year compute agreement with Akamai, announced on September
07:5824th, with an option to expand by another $9 billion, bringing the total to about $20 billion.
08:06The contract is CPU-focused and is expected to start in the second half of 2027.
08:12As part of the deal, Akamai issued Anthropoc a warrant for 7.7 million shares, roughly 5% of its
08:21common stock. At $111.33, the first warrant Akamai has ever given a customer. Akamai expects to spend
08:31about $5.5 billion to deliver the capacity. And CEO Tom Layden projected a revenue run rate near
08:40$1.7 billion by 2028. Akamai shares jumped more than 20%.
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