Green
Power-Hungry Data Centers Are Gobbling Up Texas Amid AI Boom
A state’s infamously strained electric grid faces a new threat.
Illustration: Martin Gee for Bloomberg Markets
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One business may finally be getting too big for Texas: data centers, those whirring warehouses packed with the electricity-sucking computer servers that power the modern internet and the development of artificial intelligence.
Up until now, the business-friendly state has welcomed their growth, which has been a boon for land values and property taxes. Texas offers vast tracts of land and a broad supply of cheap energy sources, including wind and solar. But the boom in data centers threatens to gobble up quite a bit of both.