The explosion of AI across every industry has seen hundreds of water- and power-hungry server farms sprout up across the US.
\nAlready, one-third of the world’s internet traffic flows through data centers in just one US state: Virginia.
\nHowever, until now, there has been no official record of the number of data centers in America, who owns them, or how much electricity they consume.
\nIn an exclusive deep dive into the industry, Business Insider reporters cracked the code and, for the first time, revealed the true cost of the data warehouses feeding our growing appetite for cloud computing and AI.
\nWe travelled to Virginia to meet people living in the shadow of 80-foot-high boxes that emit a constant drone, and to the drought-ridden state of Arizona, where some data centers are using as much as a million gallons of water a day to help cool their computer servers.
\nBusiness Insider also discovered that the power needs of data centers have forced some states to withdraw from their carbon emissions targets. Power companies are even looking to extend the life of coal and gas plants to help meet the unprecedented demand.<\/p>\n
You can access our long read on data centers on the Business Insider website: https:\/\/www.businessinsider.com\/ai-data-center-development-true-cost-environmental-impact-2025-6<\/a><\/p>\n Take a look at Business Insider’s methodology for a full breakdown of how we conducted our research and compiled our map: https:\/\/www.businessinsider.com\/how-calculate-data-center-cost-environmental-impact-methodology-2025-6<\/a><\/p>\n CHAPTERS: ——————————————————<\/p>\n Business Insider tells you all you need to know about business, finance, tech, retail, and more.<\/p>\n Visit our homepage for the top stories of the day: https:\/\/www.businessinsider.com<\/a> The explosion of AI across every industry has seen hundreds of water- and power-hungry server farms sprout up across the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":81776,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-81762","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nicheblog.top\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81762","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nicheblog.top\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nicheblog.top\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nicheblog.top\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nicheblog.top\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=81762"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nicheblog.top\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81762\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nicheblog.top\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/81776"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nicheblog.top\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81762"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nicheblog.top\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81762"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nicheblog.top\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81762"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n00:00 – Intro
\n01:34 – Welcome to Data Center Alley
\n02:41 – Living Next Door to a Data Center
\n05:16 – How We Built Our Data Center Map
\n07:59 – A Drive Through ‘Data Center Alley’
\n09:21 – Inside a Data Center in Wyoming
\n12:23 – How Does a Data Center Work?
\n13:52 – Living With the Drone – Meet Carlos
\n17:34 – Thirsty Data Centers in Drought Country
\n23:25 – Data Centers Vs Environmental Targets
\n26:38 – Tax Breaks and Incentives
\n28:34 – Just the Beginning
\n29:14 – Donna’s Choice
\n29:48 – Company Responses
\n30:25 – Credits<\/p>\n
\nBusiness Insider on Facebook: https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/businessinsider<\/a>
\nBusiness Insider on Instagram: https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/businessinsider<\/a>
\nBusiness Insider on Twitter: https:\/\/www.twitter.com\/businessinsider<\/a>
\nBusiness Insider on Snapchat: https:\/\/www.snapchat.com\/discover\/Business_Insider\/5319643143<\/a>
\nBusiness Insider on TikTok: https:\/\/www.tiktok.com\/<\/a>@businessinsider<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"