I think we are getting dangerously close to having the wrong argument about data centers. Across rural America, communities are beginning to push back against massive AI data-center developments over concerns about farmland, water use, electric rates, traffic, and the possibility that these projects could permanently change local communities. Those are legitimate concerns… I had them myself a couple of years ago when a data center tried to go in less than a quarter mile from my home and land. The neighbors and the town folk rose up and blocked the proposed plan. But since then, I’ve learned a lot more and have a different perspective.
For sure, if somebody wanted to build one of these things next to my home or farm, I would still want to know exactly what it would do to my water, my roads, my power bill, my property value, and the community my kids and grandkids will inherit.
But here is where I am probably going to piss some people off: if you are for America, I think at some point you have to be supportive of the data centers.
Certainly not every project. Certainly not every location. And certainly not every sweetheart deal some politician or business mogul wants to put together. Communities absolutely need to protect themselves and negotiate hard. But we had better understand what these facilities really are. They are no longer just giant warehouses filled with computers. They are becoming part of America’s strategic infrastructure.
The federal government is already treating AI that way. Washington has called for accelerating data-center construction and the transmission infrastructure needed to power it because AI is increasingly viewed as critical to U.S. economic competitiveness, technological leadership and national security.
The electricity demand alone shows how serious this buildout has become. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory estimates that U.S. data centers could consume roughly 11.8% of all American electricity by 2030, while the International Energy Agency expects data-center expansion to account for a huge share of future U.S. electricity-demand growth. That means this isn’t some distant science-fiction story. The buildout is happening now. And what I keep telling people is to follow the money. Companies don’t commit hundreds of billions of dollars because they think something is trendy. They do it because they believe computing is going to become one of the most valuable resources in the world.
This is also where I think a lot of Americans are missing the bigger picture. The argument isn’t whether we want a data center outside our back door. The argument is whether we want the world’s most powerful artificial-intelligence ecosystem built in America or built somewhere else on foreign ground…. with the biggest competitor being China.
AI is eventually going to sit underneath manufacturing, transportation, agriculture, finance, medicine, logistics, robotics, autonomous vehicles, drones, cybersecurity, and weapons systems. So game this thing out 10 or 20 years. What happens if the best autonomous manufacturing systems are Chinese? What if the best robotics platforms are Chinese? What if China combines world-class AI with the enormous manufacturing base it already possesses? Then ask the question I always ask: where does the money go?
Global capital is not patriotic. Capital moves toward returns. If America remains the place with the best technology, strongest productivity, and most innovative companies, global capital has a powerful reason to keep flowing here, to the US, which helps keep the US dollar as the world’s reserve currency. But if the center of technological gravity shifts elsewhere, eventually capital and leadership can move with it. That is where this type of math starts to get much more concerning and bigger than whether somebody likes looking at a data center in their area.
The United States is already carrying an enormous federal debt load. One of America’s extraordinary advantages remains the US dollar’s central role in global finance. The dollar still represents roughly 57% of disclosed global foreign-exchange reserves. I’m not saying China wins AI and the dollar suddenly disappears. That’s not necessarily how this would play out. But it could certainly debunk the US dollar from its global leadership role. And in today’s markets, investors typically don’t wait until the building is on fire before they start looking for the exits and the alternatives. Instead, you game out the tail risk before everyone else believes it can happen.
And then there is the argument for national defense. This is the part that bothers me the most.
I have grandkids. When I look at where AI, drones, autonomy, and robotics are heading, I don’t think it is crazy to believe that future major military outbreaks could look dramatically different from the wars we’ve fought in the past. The federal government is already integrating advanced AI into military and intelligence applications and openly treating the technology as a national-security priority. The wave of drones and humanoid robots as military defense is upon our doorstep. If the Chinese have the data centers and the manufacturing infrastructure, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that they will be able to produce the most military robots and weapons. Remember, it was our massive manufacturing base, which was pivoted during WWI and WWII, that helped us win the wars.
Take that forward twenty years. Imagine a country with the best AI, the most data centers, the largest manufacturing capacity and footprint, and the ability to build autonomous machines at scale. That is not something I want Americans staring at across the ocean, wondering how in the hell we allowed ourselves to get behind. Which brings this right back to rural America and data centers.
Every generation has been asked to sacrifice something. Previous generations sent their sons overseas to fight. Families rationed fuel and food. Factory owners were asked to stop making consumer goods and start making weapons. Farmers were asked to produce everything they possibly could. Maybe the sacrifice being asked of this generation simply looks different than in the past.
Maybe nobody is asking you to send your son or daughter to war. Maybe they are asking somebody to sell 160 acres. Maybe they are asking somebody to allow a transmission line to run across the farm. Maybe they are asking a rural county to accept a data center. I’m not pretending those things are painless. Land is different in agriculture. Great Grandpa may have homesteaded it or purchased it. Grandad or Dad improved it. You farmed it. Your kids were supposed to farm it. There is emotion attached to every acre. I fully get it…
And don’t misunderstand me. I am not telling rural America to roll over. I think the exact opposite. If the largest technology companies in human history suddenly need your land, your water, your transmission corridor, your substation, your natural gas, your fiber route, or your community’s permission, then figure out what it’s worth to you, your community, and our nation. Negotiate hard. Protect groundwater. Protect residential power. Make developers pay for roads and infrastructure. Think about long-term community funds. Structure easements correctly. But don’t protest yourself out of generational wealth simply because change makes you uncomfortable.
Power is becoming a bottleneck. Transmission is becoming a bottleneck. Land in the right place is becoming a bottleneck. Community approval is becoming a bottleneck. And bottlenecks have value. So my message to farmers isn’t, “Give Big Tech your farm.” It is: understand what you own and what they are trying to fully accomplish before you tell them no. China isn’t going to stop building its AI infrastructure just because Americans are uncomfortable building theirs. Technology doesn’t wait. Capital doesn’t wait. And competition doesn’t wait.
If you believe America needs to win the AI race, I argue there is no other choice but to win the AI race; then, eventually, you have to believe America needs the infrastructure required to run AI. Unfortunately, that means data centers. It means electricity. It means transmission. It means power plants. It means transformers. It means semiconductor fabs. It means manufacturing. And yes, some of it is going to get built in somebody’s backyard.
Again, maybe the patriotic sacrifice of our generation isn’t being asked to send our children overseas to fight. Maybe it’s being willing to sell the back 160, put a transmission line across the farm, or let America build the infrastructure here so our kids never have to find out what the alternative looks like. That might sound dramatic. And, I hope twenty years from now, America is still in control of what I believe is the most dangerous thing ever invented. If we don’t want the data centers, then we aren’t going to be the ones controlling AI. Lots to think about.
