The True Cost of Data Centers

John-David Richardson for BI

Business Insider's "The True Cost of Data Centers" series explores the impacts — on water, power, pollution, and local economies — of Big Tech's race to dominate a future built on AI.

The AI boom has sparked a rush to build data center infrastructure across the US. By Business Insider's count, companies had filed permits to build 311 data centers nationwide as of 2010. By the end of 2024, that number had nearly quadrupled to 1,240.

These data centers...