Water and Energy Use is Growing as Data Centers Are Built Across the Midwest and Great Plains

By Joe Schulz

In rural Dane County, Wisconsin, a developer wants to build a data center campus with 15 buildings over the next decade.

Texas will serve as the home base for Stargate, a $500 billion effort to build artificial intelligence infrastructure, with 10 data centers under construction and 10 more planned.

In Kansas City, Kansas, developers are looking to build a data center at a defunct power plant.

Data centers are expanding across the U.S. to meet growing demand for artificial intelligence, but their growth also raises thorny questions over resources.