Estimated read time: 4-5 minutes
- Data centers are expanding significantly, driven by demand for AI and corporate ambitions.
- Residents express concerns over resource use and lack of community involvement in decisions.
- The U.S. aims to lead in AI, with a focus on military applications and infrastructure.
SALT LAKE CITY — While Kevin O'Leary's proposed Stratos project continues to catch national headlines, it is only one of several that have called out claims of being the "biggest ever," each for differing reasons. Stratos held that claim in terms of sheer project size, with a proposed 40,000 acres, which has now been reduced down to a 10,000-acre campus.
In Texas, Project Matador boasts the biggest in terms of power generation, aiming for up to 17 gigawatts, while Switch's Tahoe data center seems to hold bragging rights for the largest single building, at more than a million square feet.
However, while bigger may be better when it comes to attracting investors, those types of stats don't seem to impress many prospective neighbors. In the small, Central Utah town of Delta, some of the locals are not exactly thrilled at the prospect of two nearby hyperscale projects. About 10 miles down the road, Creekstone's Delta Gigasite project had eyes on building the largest campus ever, at around 11,000 acres, with plans to eventually scale up to 10 gigawatts in power generation.
"If they're going to start taking our resources, we definitely ought to know about it and have some kind of a say," Spence Butler, an area farmer, said.
His wife, Cindy Butler, added, "It feels like it's been rushed through and kind of rammed down our throats with very little information."
A bit further down the road, near Holden, the future Joule campus promises to generate up to four gigawatts of power on a 4,000-acre campus.
"I think all data centers are just a horrible thing to put into any little community, but especially our little community that's dry as it is," Joshua Thompson, a Delta resident, said. "I think, especially AI data centers, they're just not needed. AI is not a necessity."
The expanding needs of AI
The advent of AI has pushed many modern data center projects to suddenly require more land, energy and computing power. While much of that growth is being pushed by corporate ambitions to grow consumer uses, an executive order, signed by President Donald Trump in July 2025, pushes for expanded military applications. The order in part states:
"My Administration has inaugurated a golden age for American manufacturing and technological dominance. We will pursue bold, large-scale industrial plans to vault the United States further into the lead on critical manufacturing processes and technologies that are essential to national security, economic prosperity, and scientific leadership."
The order further calls for tax incentives and loan guarantees for developers, improved electrical infrastructure, and the easing of regulatory burdens. It urges the expansion of both consumer and military AI, keeping the U.S. at the forefront ahead of China. The order also revokes another order signed by President Biden in 2023 that aimed to guide the future growth of AI.
I think all data centers are just a horrible thing to put into any little community ... AI data centers, they're just not needed. AI is not a necessity.
–Joshua Thompson
Critics, however, have argued that the ongoing AI race with China is as congruent as it's often made out to be, as the two countries are arguably pursuing very different aims in the use of the technology. While the U.S. currently leads in intelligent chatbot models, China excels in more physical applications, like robotics, manufacturing, and the use of drones and autonomous vehicles, according to a report by the Brookings Institute.
Challenging the capacity of our power grid
As hyperscale data center projects strive to generate their own power and further utilize our nation's grid, Brad Johnson, a market development director for energy and electric utilities, with Bentley Systems, said the deficiencies of the power grid are being exposed. He said data center developers should work with communities to build infrastructure and do their part to grow the grid.
"We're going to find issues that may be directly related to data centers, and those need to be resolved," Johnson said. "The way the grid is designed and should be designed is that power that's being generated at the data center could also backfeed into the grid, benefiting the residents in that area around the data center."
Johnson adds that instead of stressing area resources, state and local leaders need to be involved in setting up data center developments to benefit their communities.
"I think the more prepared a community is to make the right decision, whether it's right for them or wrong for them, (is) founded in engineering principles, it's going to be handled with fewer unintended consequences," Johnson explained. "I think at the end of the day, the data center issue is revealing, not just issues or challenges that are unique to data centers. It's surfacing the challenges that we've been facing in our infrastructure for a century."
