Latest news with #DataCenterCoalition
Yahoo
21-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Report highlights community pushback stalling $64 billion in data center development nationwide
A representative for the Data Center Coalition speaks in opposition to a bill on data centers with Virginia Del. Josh Thomas (D-Prince William) and labor union representatives behind her. (Photo by Charles Paullin/Inside Climate News) As Elena Schlossberg of Prince William County, Virginia sees it, the community effort to fight the richest companies in the world seeking to build data centers began about a decade ago when opposition coalesced in the early days of the industry's development. Then, a couple of years ago, when people began to learn much more about the warehouse-like server farms proliferating at double the earlier rate, the fight strengthened with a meeting in Warrenton. 'That was where we all just started saying, 'OK, in order to fight this behemoth, we have to have some organizational process,'' Schlossberg said. 'We have to be able to communicate. We have to be able to support each other. We have to have a clearinghouse for all the information.' Schlossberg's group, the Coalition to Protect Prince William County, about 35 miles southwest of the nation's capital, teamed up with several other groups, including the Piedmont Environmental Council, the Sierra Club and the National Parks Conservation Association, and met in one of the areas facing development pressure that could now triple in the state. They formed the Virginia Data Center Reform Coalition. Such community opposition is the focal point of a recent report by Data Center Watch, a research organization tracking data center opposition. A key finding: '$64 billion in U.S. data center projects have been blocked or delayed by a growing wave of local, bipartisan opposition.' 'What was once quiet infrastructure is now a national flashpoint — and communities are pushing back,' the report says. 'This report highlights political risks and local opposition as frequent factors in data center project delays or cancellations, including community resistance, environmental concerns, and zoning issues.' As data center development explodes, the industry has faced particular challenges in Virginia, its global epicenter. Some $900 million in projects in the state have been blocked, and $45.8 billion in projects have been delayed. Yet, environmental advocates say few protections have been put in place. At the state level, dozens of bills were introduced in the Virginia General Assembly this year to enact development safeguards, but only a symbolic one about utility costs was signed into law by Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin. Josh Levi, president of the Data Center Coalition, a trade group representing many of the tech companies developing projects in Virginia, said the group is 'committed to working collaboratively with local officials, policymakers, and regulatory bodies at every level. 'Data center companies site projects where they are permitted under local zoning ordinances, rules, and regulations, which are developed by local leaders representing their communities,' Levi said. 'The industry seeks to work collaboratively with local officials to minimize community impacts, which often includes participating in town halls and other community and public engagement opportunities.' The locations of projects getting blocked or delayed are mostly centered in the Northern Virginia suburbs and exurbs of Washington, where the internet began. The region now serves a vast federal government, defense and intelligence complex. A couple other projects highlighted in the report branch out into the Northern Neck, south of the Potomac River, and outside Richmond. Virginia is home to 13 percent of the world's data center capacity, while 70 percent of the world's internet traffic moves through computers in the state. One case study in the report highlighted the effort by Schlossberg's group, the Manassas Battlefield Trust and others to stop the $24.7 billion Digital Gateway development of a campus with 37 data centers in Prince William County near the Manassas National Battlefield Park. Another is the Bren Pointe residential community in Fairfax County, fighting a $165 million hyperscale project that would need transmission lines and a five-acre substation 60 feet from the boundary of a townhome complex. In another project in Warrenton, proposed by Amazon with an undetermined development cost, hundreds of people, including actor Robert Duvall, attended and spoke in opposition, according to FauquierNow. Legal challenges have stalled the town council's approval of the project, and during that period, council members who supported it have been voted out of office. The report noted that Republican elected officials made up 55 percent of those critical of projects, expressing concerns over the use of tax incentives. Democrats made up 45 percent of those opposing projects, largely over environmental concerns. But many elected officials are approving data centers. 'What will it take for people in positions of power to make different choices?' Schlossberg said. 'As plain as the nose on my face, data centers are impacting the integrity of our water and our air and our communities and our reliable, affordable electricity.' Ann Wheeler, former chair of the Board of Supervisors in Prince William County, declined to comment on why she lost her Democratic primary race for re-election, but stood by her choices to support the industry in today's digitally driven society. The environmental concerns used 'misinformation' as part of a campaign of BANANA, or Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Anyone, she said, and supporting the facilities' construction meant union jobs and hundreds of millions of dollars in local revenue to support social services her party has traditionally aligned with. 'They'll go in somewhere,' Wheeler said, adding her county had resources for responsible planning. 'I would rather have that tax revenue in Virginia.' The report did not feature the opposition to a proposed data center in Pittsylvania County. There, community pushback and a report commissioned by the Southern Environmental Law Center, which highlighted the health effects from on-site, fossil fuel-powered generation equipment, led to the Board of Supervisors rejecting a needed rezoning application, effectively killing the project. The report included other case studies of successful data center opposition in Indiana, Texas and Arizona. Virginia's legislative research arm, the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission, issued a report in December that comprehensively examined the costs of data center development. It found that data-center energy demand would roughly triple from 2023 to 2040 if development went unconstrained. Even so, the legislative protections proposed this year failed to make it across the finish line. Youngkin vetoed a bill that would have had localities require a description of substation needs and a study on the noise the facilities close to homes and schools generate, which can come from their air conditioning units, and onsite power generators. House Democrats killed a requirement for state regulators to review data center power contractsto ensure that electricity generation and transmission lines could support the need. One change that did pass requires the State Corporation Commission, which regulates utilities, to review cost allocations for data center projects between consumers and the center operators. The commission already had that authority. One Republican lawmaker, Del. Ian Lovejoy of Prince William County, pushed for ways to have the industry pay for the electric grid upgrades it necessitates. But debate on the bills married business and labor union interests, which 'usually are opposed to one another,' Lovejoy said. 'When those two groups agree on something, [there are] very difficult headwinds.' The General Assembly was also leery of interfering with local land use decisions in an election year, Lovejoy said. All 100 delegates are up for election this year, along with the governor. Democrats control the chamber 51-49. The state Senate, also controlled by Democrats, 21-19, has elections in two years. A similar debate driven by community opposition to new solar projects also took place this year in the legislature. Community opposition to data centers, Lovejoy said, 'is going to affect more and more people when they build data centers directly next to houses. That's the cautionary tale. Look at Loudoun [County], look at Prince William. Don't build them next to schools, don't build them next to houses. Make sure they're set back properly, or you're going to have the same issues that we're having.' Schlossberg said members of her group traveled a couple of hours down to Richmond one early morning during the legislative session earlier in the year. They were there to lobby for the swath of data-center bills as part of the group's increasing battle at the local, state and federal level that is costing the industry money and creating a community of opponents. 'I think it's important to really talk about the building of community,' Schlossberg said. 'In a digital world, I think we have seen people who have never felt lonelier. And I think that's been a really important positive outcome, is that people connect.' This article originally appeared on Inside Climate News, a nonprofit, non-partisan news organization that covers climate, energy and the environment. Sign up for their newsletter here.
Yahoo
18-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Data centers could reshape landscape in NEPA
Data centers are coming to Northeast Pennsylvania. In a region once fueled by coal, a new industry aims to reshape Northeast Pennsylvania, tapping into the high-voltage power lines slicing through the valley to fuel sprawling campuses of computer-filled buildings powering artificial intelligence and cloud computing. Because of the sudden surge in data centers, local municipalities do not adequately address them in their zoning, leaving communities scrambling to update their land-use legislation to address the rapidly growing industry. Over the last six months, Lackawanna County — primarily in its Midvalley region — has experienced a burst of interest from developers looking to construct large data center parks, joining Luzerne County where Missouri-based NorthPoint Development plans to construct a 15-building data center campus in Hazle Twp. called 'Project Hazelnut,' and where Amazon seeks to operate a data center in Salem Twp. near a nuclear power plant. In Lackawanna County, Archbald has become the hotbed for new data center activity, with three data center campuses proposed for the town, all along the Business Route 6 or Eynon Jermyn Road corridors. Although nothing is official, another developer looks to build a data center in Jessup, and on the southern tier of the county, Clifton Twp. officials are looking to update their zoning in light of a data center proposal. While data centers offer significant tax revenue and high-paying jobs, they could have adverse effects if not properly legislated by municipalities. Local officials are looking to amend their zoning to provide more oversight over data centers and potentially restrict where they can be built, though for some projects, it could be too late. According to the Data Center Coalition, data centers are physical locations that organizations use to house their critical applications and data. 'Data centers are the foundation of the digital infrastructure on which our modern society and economy are built,' according to the industry group's website. 'Data centers aggregate our collective computing demands — everything from sharing photos with friends and family to streaming our favorite shows to supporting online learning and storing important medical and financial information — efficiently and securely in one location.' The Data Center Coalition is a membership association for the data center industry, with members including Amazon Web Services, Google, Microsoft and Meta. * Power lines span over the Scranton Carbondale Highway in Archbald Thursday, May 15, 2025. (SEAN MCKEAG / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER) * Power lines span over the Scranton Carbondale Highway in Archbald Thursday, May 15, 2025. (SEAN MCKEAG / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER) * Power lines run through a section of the Archbald off of the Scranton Carbondale Highway Thursday, May 15, 2025. (SEAN MCKEAG / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER) Show Caption 1 of 3 Power lines span over the Scranton Carbondale Highway in Archbald Thursday, May 15, 2025. (SEAN MCKEAG / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER) Expand Why now? Growth in artificial intelligence is the driving factor behind the surge in data centers, said John Augustine, president and CEO of Penn's Northeast, which is a Pittston-based collective aiming to promote new investments, jobs and business opportunities by promoting Northeast Pennsylvania. 'Cloud computing, computer programs themselves, also play a role in data centers, but really, AI is driving this fast-moving train,' he said. Virginia was essentially the birthplace of data centers, but portions of the state put moratoriums in place on new developments because of the amounts of water and power they use, he said. In response, Amazon looked at tapping directly into the Talen Energy nuclear power plant in Salem Twp. for a data center,, Augustine said. Amazon's data center put Northeast Pennsylvania on the map for new developments, piquing the interest of other major data center firms like Google, Meta and Microsoft, he said. 'Amazon was the first and kind of said, 'Hey, look at this place. They have water, they have land, and most importantly, they have the power,'' Augustine said. But, the online retail giant's project hit a roadblock when members of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in November opposed Talen Energy's proposal to increase the amount of power that it would directly supply to Amazon for data centers. Last month, FERC upheld that decision. With multiple natural gas power plants in Northeast Pennsylvania and the ability to draw natural gas from the Marcellus Shale, Augustine believes the region is well suited for data centers. If data centers use natural gas to generate power onsite, they will pay markedly less per kilowatt of power, he said. 'We have the second largest natural gas reserve in the world,' he said. 'Now it's time to put it to work for what is literally generational, life-changing opportunities.' In Archbald, borough Manager Dan Markey said borough officials have asked people why their town has so much interest, and the answer is always the same. 'We have the trifecta,' he said. 'We have the power, we have the fiber (internet), and we have the land.' Archbald now has three proposed data centers. Wildcat Ridge AI Data Center Campus: A 17.2-million-square-foot proposed data center campus spanning nearly 400 mountainside acres along Business Route 6 and Wildcat Road, or Route 247. A firm first approached Archbald during a January council work session touting an estimated $2.1 billion investment. The data center campus would consist of 14 three-story-tall data center buildings, each with a 126,500-square-foot footprint, according to conceptual plans for the project. For that to move forward, Archbald will have to either rezone hundreds of acres of resource conservation and medium/high density residential land, or grant a special data center overlay. Project Gravity: A data center campus that would be built on just over 186 acres between Business Route 6 and the Eynon Jermyn Road, with entrances on both roads. Proposed by New York City-based Western Hospitality Partners, operating as Archbald 25 Developer LLC, Project Gravity would have at least six two-story data center buildings, each with a 135,000-square-foot footprint. The same developer has proposed data centers in Indiana and Illinois. Archbald Data & Energy Center: A project to remove the Highway Auto Parts auto salvage yard on the Eynon Jermyn Road and build three data centers, each under 70 feet tall with a roughly 150,000-square-foot footprint, along with ancillary buildings and structures. Another developer is looking at building data centers in the Jessup area near the Lackawanna Energy Center natural gas-fired power plant, Augustine said. Augustine believes power will be the limiting factor for the Midvalley projects. 'Will we necessarily see all four of these proposed (data centers) happen?' he said. 'There's not enough power in Pennsylvania, there's not enough power on the PJM grid to be able to handle all of the data centers that are looking currently in the region.' The PJM is a regional transmission organization that coordinates the movement of wholesale electricity throughout the eastern United States. However, Augustine noted plans to add more than nine gigawatts of power to Pennsylvania, with seven gigawatts dedicated to the northeast. Impact of data centers Augustine pointed to job creation and 'game changing' amounts of tax revenue that could be generated by data centers. Data center campuses will take up to five to seven years to completely build, creating potentially thousands of construction jobs with good wages and union labor, Augustine said. Then, once the data centers are complete, each building will employ around 12 to 15 people to operate them, with jobs paying $80,000 to $100,000-plus, he said. 'The dollars that we're talking about in terms of going back to the school districts and the municipalities is just absurd,' he said. Unlike warehousing and distribution centers — another thriving industry in Northeast Pennsylvania — data centers do not have constant truck traffic, aside from the initial construction traffic, Augustine said. 'If some of these companies go through with what they're looking at in Northeastern Pa. and across the state, it will be the largest expenditures ever spent in Pennsylvania history,' he said. For Archbald, the borough reached out to other areas of Pennsylvania and across the country looking for more information on data centers, Markey said. Borough council's top priority is to ensure its residents are safe and healthy, he said. The borough was warned of the possibility of hearing a low hum from the data centers if they're near residential neighborhoods with air cooled systems rather than liquid cooling, he said. Borough officials also learned of the economic benefits, not just from tax revenue but job creation, he said. 'All of a sudden, restaurants become busier, and gas stations and grocery stores become busier,' he said. 'Residential housing is no longer vacant.' Archbald Neighborhood Association co-founder Kayleigh Cornell has taken an active role in informing the community about data centers proposed in her town, attending meetings and using her organization's Facebook page to share news and updates. Residents have reached out to the association, and she has family living near the proposed Project Gravity, she said. 'With the data centers, we're not for or against them,' she said. 'We just want the residents to benefit as much as possible from them.' Noise is the largest impact for residents, Cornell said, advocating that data centers use closed-loop water cooling systems for the least noise, as well as using enclosed diesel generators for backup power. Light pollution is another impact, which could be resolved with downward-facing lights, she said. 'Hopefully we could get them to be better neighbors and implement some of the strategies that other municipalities have used,' Cornell said. For guidance, Cornell spoke with the Community & Environmental Defense Services organization. For four decades, CEDS has worked with communities across the country as they navigated proposals from warehouses, transfer stations, landfills, highways and other uses, founder and President Richard Klein said in a phone interview Thursday. Over the last six months, he has been working with communities on data centers. Data centers are attractive because of their tax benefits, and Klein encourages towns to look at ways data centers can be managed to get the tax benefits without causing noise pollution, air pollution, high electricity cost impacts and potential impacts to ground and surface water. They are more benign than warehouses, he said. Older, air-cooled data centers with large fans put out a 'horrendous noise,' but better water-cooled systems and diesel generators stored indoors prevent those adverse effects for residents, Klein said. 'We want you to adopt regulations first to attract the good data centers, the ones that are good neighbors with lots of tax benefits, and discourage those that would cause the excessive impacts that some data centers have caused,' Klein said. 'That strategy is far more successful than trying to kill a data center, which is a conventional approach.' Klein suggests that towns require a noise impact study, a water resources impact study and an air quality study. Data centers should give local governments the funds to hire independent experts for the studies, he said. Legislating data centers Municipalities in Pennsylvania have to allow for every type of land use somewhere within their borders, creating zoning ordinances and maps designating land uses for everything from data centers to strip clubs and landfills. While the process to create a new zoning ordinance is often comprehensive, involving public meetings with guidance from zoning experts, new land uses from burgeoning industries like data centers may not appear in zoning ordinances, even if they're recent. As data center developers look to build along the high-tension power lines throughout the region, Mary Liz Donato, the planning department manager for the Lackawanna County Regional Planning Commission, said there is not an ordinance in Lackawanna County that addresses data centers. Newer legislation, like in Archbald and Jessup, mentions them, but they lack criteria, she said. Lackawanna County is now doing research through the American Planning Association and other organizations to get model ordinances and get more insight into data centers, Donato said. She also expects to get legal advice. 'If you're a municipality and you've got those high-tension power lines running through your community, I would be looking into doing an amendment sooner rather than later at this point, because that seems to be where they're going,' she said. Archbald adopted its zoning ordinance in March 2023 as part of a year-and-a-half-long process, but its only language on data centers is: 'Data Center, which may include an Internet Server Building.' Although he was not with the borough when it was adopted, Markey said he was told the borough saw data centers as smaller external buildings — not the large campuses now proposed in town. 'Nothing was taken lightly,' Markey said. 'Personally, I don't know if this was ever forecasted by anyone in Northeast Pennsylvania … two years ago.' The zoning challenge for Archbald stems from how it designates data centers as principally permitted uses, including in general commercial districts, giving developers a more direct path toward approval. The borough is now trying to remedy that by reclassifying data centers as conditional uses, which would require developers to attend a public hearing where they could be questioned by borough officials and residents. If council approves the project, the borough could attach conditions to the approval. Archbald has not yet set a hearing date to consider the zoning amendment, Markey said. The borough and Lackawanna County planning commissions both have to review and comment on it, then the town has to advertise a hearing date for the zoning amendment, he said. Until the law is changed, Archbald has to follow the legislation as it is written, Markey said. That means considering any data center applications as principally permitted uses until council makes them conditional uses. As a principally permitted use, data centers still have to abide by Archbald's ordinances, including reviews by the borough and county planning commissions, zoning officer, fire chief and solicitor, Markey said. 'We are doing our very best to follow the laws that we have in place right now,' he said. To navigate the zoning process for data centers, Archbald hired engineering consulting firm Pennoni. The Archbald Neighborhood Association advocates for the borough to go through the process as thoroughly as possible, Cornell said. Seeing what's happening in communities like Archbald, and with rumblings of a data center near the Lackawanna Energy Center, Jessup Council Vice President Jerry Crinella said his town wants to be proactive. Jessup adopted its zoning ordinance in November 2020; Archbald later hired the same firm to create its zoning ordinance. As a result, the two towns have very similar zoning in place for data centers. 'I would love to see a data center in Jessup, but I would love to see it in the area that's designated for it and is appropriate for it,' Crinella said. Jessup is looking to better define data centers in its zoning, define where they can and cannot be located, and where possible, make them conditional uses, he said. He expects the borough to bring in an expert to navigate the process. 'You probably make the largest investment of your lifetime when you decide to choose your residence and site your family and build a home or buy a home,' Crinella said. 'Changing zoning should always be done with the utmost care, because you want to make sure that you are not negatively affecting all of the people and current businesses that have already invested in your town.' With his district seeing the most data center interest in Lackawanna County, state Rep. Kyle Mullins, D-112, Blakely, encouraged developers to come in prepared to work with their host communities. 'The health and safety of residents is paramount, and any project proposal — it must demonstrate and be held to that standard of health and safety of residents, and the environment and quality of life in the area,' Mullins said. 'I would strongly encourage prospective developers to work with community members to provide assurances and proof that those standards can be met, and that they will be not only good employers, but good neighbors.'
Politico
16-05-2025
- Business
- Politico
5 questions for the Data Center Coalition's Josh Levi
Presented by Hello, and welcome to this week's installment of the Future in Five Questions. This week I spoke with Josh Levi, president of the Data Center Coalition, the primary trade group for one of the fastest-growing industries in the United States. Levi, a former vice president of the Northern Virginia Technology Council, discussed why he thinks government needs to do more to boost U.S. energy generation and capacity, the influence of science historian James Burke's 'Connections,' and the astonishing rate of growth and spending in his own industry. An edited and condensed version of the conversation follows: What's one underrated big idea? How digital infrastructure has become foundational for everything we do. Data is the lifeblood of our daily lives and the 21st-century economy. All the convenience we often associate with the cloud, whether it's streaming a movie, participating in a Zoom call, having a telehealth appointment with your doctor, or participating in online learning is facilitated by data transferred and stored in physical locations, the servers located in data centers. In fact, the average American household now has 21 connected devices. I'm slightly embarrassed to admit my family has over 50. The world is expected to generate as much data in the next five years as it did over the previous 10, especially as an additional 2 billion people start connecting to the internet. We're seeing a massive increase in demand for the data that fuels economic growth. Ninety-five percent of Fortune 500 companies now leverage cloud-based tools and apps in their daily operations, and business sectors of all types, like manufacturing, healthcare, cybersecurity and finance, among many others rely on cloud-based data processing. With the increasing deployment of AI applications, these trends will continue and accelerate. What's a technology that you think is overhyped? I think there's too much attention paid to technologies potentially being overhyped, to the extent that we may instead risk underhyping the potential for significant advancements. I've been proven wrong multiple times in the past by technologies I thought were overhyped. Some that were literally science fiction when I was growing up are now accepted facets of our daily lives. I remember reading an article in the late 1990s that introduced the concept of a single device that would replace your watch, phone, electronic communications, beeper, camera, and even your wallet. This was in the flip-phone era, and the idea of using a phone for payments and credentials was hard to fathom. By being too cautious or moving too slowly, we may miss the tremendous positive upside of new technologies rather than leaning in to help support their creation and adoption. What could the government be doing regarding technology that it isn't? Access to reliable electricity has become the pacing challenge to building out America's digital infrastructure. After 20 years of relatively flat electricity load growth, today nearly all new investment and growth throughout the 21st century economy fundamentally relies on the availability of power. Previously, data center companies have been able to construct and power facilities in 18 to 24 months. Now in some markets, power will not be available to support major projects for four to seven years or longer. An overly cautious view bears risks for our entire economy. The federal government has an important leadership role to play, and while efforts are underway, more can be done and speed is important. Load forecasting processes should be standardized and improved to build greater confidence and right-size investments. Permitting reform for needed transmission investments and projects should be expedited. New grid configurations, including co-located load arrangements, should be permissible with reasonable parameters in place. Energy supply chains, particularly for transformers, breakers and turbines, should be prioritized and secured. The Trump administration recognizes the essential role of data centers and has been a strong leader in helping to accelerate additional investments that support our national security and economic competitiveness today and into the future. The data center industry will continue engaging with the White House, Congress, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, and various agencies to help inform how the federal government can ensure we have the power needed to meet this moment. What book most shaped your conception of the future? I read a book in middle school by James Burke called 'Connections,' which was a companion to a related documentary series. 'Connections' significantly influenced how I think about the future and the present. In the book, Burke identifies a series of inventions that are important in our modern lives, such as airplanes, TVs and the industrial production line. He then looks back at previous technologies, inventions and discoveries over centuries that influenced and contributed to the development of that modern-day technology. These connections and chains of events were not immediately obvious, and Burke's skill is in identifying and weaving them together. 'Connections' provided an extraordinary view of everything that had to come together to inform many of our modern technologies. It expanded my awareness of all the innovations we know today and the certainty I have that many will come together in the future to create extraordinary new innovations we cannot anticipate. 'Connections' influenced my decision to focus my career in the technology industry. What has surprised you the most this year? The size and scale of investments made by data center companies in continuing to build out digital infrastructure. How quickly these announcements and investments have grown from hundreds of millions of dollars, to billions of dollars, to more than $100 billion in some cases, has been extraordinary. Meanwhile, the number of jobs and economic opportunities associated with those investments has continued to increase; the industry now supports 4.7 million jobs and $727 billion in annual GDP as of 2023. Companies are investing to meet this unprecedented moment and responding to the growing demand signals for more data and digital infrastructure across all facets of our society and economy. grok-splaining xAI offered a measured explanation for its chatbot Grok's sudden obsession with 'white genocide.' In a post on X Thursday evening, the company said 'an unauthorized modification was made to the Grok response bot's prompt on X … This change, which directed Grok to provide a specific response on a political topic, violated xAI's internal policies and core values.' The message did not disclose who made the change. xAI continued to say, 'We have conducted a thorough investigation and are implementing measures to enhance Grok's transparency and reliability.' The company outlined steps it's taking to increase transparency for Grok's output, including publishing system prompts on GitHub, adding 'additional checks and measures to ensure that xAI employees can't modify the prompt without review,' and starting a '24/7 monitoring team' to catch future incidents. openai tries to clear the air OpenAI is trying to convince California's attorney general that it's complying with the legal obligations of being a nonprofit. POLITICO's Christine Mui reported for Pro subscribers today on a letter from the company to California AG Rob Bonta, pushing back on criticism from figures like Elon Musk and other nonprofits that OpenAI is not meeting its requirements as a nonprofit. Critics accuse OpenAI of breaching its charitable trust by abandoning its original nonprofit mission and allowing its assets to be diverted for private gain. 'Despite (and likely because) of OpenAI's achievements, its most powerful detractors — many of whom, including Elon Musk, stand to massively profit if OpenAI falters — have sponsored a false narrative about OpenAI to advance their own commercial interests,' wrote two lawyers hired by OpenAI, Gov. Gavin Newsom's former chief of staff Ann O'Leary and William Savitt. Bonta has been investigating OpenAI's compliance as a nonprofit since 2024. Amid the company's abortive attempt to put its for-profit portion in control of the nonprofit last month, nonprofits, labor groups and philanthropists signed a letter asking Bonta to 'transfer OpenAI's charitable assets to a truly independent nonprofit or nonprofits.' ai in albania European Union leaders visiting Albania today received a deeply weird AI-powered welcome. POLITICO's Clea Calcutt reported from the opening ceremony of the European Political Community in Tirana, where EU leaders were greeted by a short film showing each of them … as an AI-generated baby, saying 'Welcome to Albania' in their native language. Clea writes that the video could have been dreamt up by Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama, a former painter in France with a reputation for playful quirkiness. (He was reelected by a wide margin this week.) Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni laughed heartily at the strange welcome, while Clea writes that Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen smiled incredulously. Turkey's Recep Tayyip Erdoğan was 'stony,' but he 'let a slight smile slip when his version came up, a small baby with a mustache.' post of the day THE FUTURE IN 5 LINKS Stay in touch with the whole team: Mohar Chatterjee (mchatterjee@ Steve Heuser (sheuser@ Nate Robson (nrobson@ and Daniella Cheslow (dcheslow@
Axios
30-04-2025
- Business
- Axios
Mapped: Ohio data center jobs
As data centers consume resources and benefit from tax breaks, some critics question whether it's all worth it. By the numbers: Ohio data center employment increased 54% from 2018 to 2024, per census data. But overall, just 11,791 Ohioans work in the field. By comparison, Anduril has promised over 4,000 jobs at its planned Rickenbacker production facility. Intel promised over 3,000. The other side: A recent Data Center Coalition report touts the economic benefits of centers beyond the jobs inside them.
Axios
22-04-2025
- Business
- Axios
Colorado lawmakers advance tax breaks for data centers
Colorado is prepared to offer tax breaks worth millions to lure data centers that power AI despite evidence questioning their economic impact. Why it matters: The proposed incentives — valued at nearly $17 million when implemented — represent a big bet at a time when Colorado lawmakers are pinching pennies. State of play: Colorado is behind the curve on data centers, especially compared with its northern neighbor Wyoming, but lawmakers here are hoping a state sales and use tax break will draw more development, as well as jobs and improvements to the power grid. The exemption is equal to 100% of expenses and will stay in place for 20 years. Friction point: The question is who benefits from data centers given their soaring energy and water demands, unproven benefits for local communities and minimal permanent jobs created. If leaders prioritize jobs, there are better industries for which to compete, says Peter Orazem, an economics professor at Iowa State University. But future property tax revenue for local governments could justify the investment, he says. Context: A 2023 state-commissioned report in Virginia, the country's data center hub, found that the initial construction phase delivered economic benefits, but they drop off sharply once the centers are built. Building a 250,000-square-foot data center employs up to 1,500 local employees for 12-18 months. But that declines to 50 full-time workers, half of them contracted. The other side: A recent Data Center Coalition report touts the economic benefits of data centers beyond the jobs inside them. Those include bolstering supply-chain businesses, employees' spending in the community, and companies' state and local tax contributions — which come without straining public services like schools. What's next: The Colorado bill won approval at a contentious legislative hearing last week and now moves to the appropriations committee for consideration.
