Is this the future of America?

In 2007, the United States faced an impending economic recession, and Buddy Rizer was given the task of finding a new source of revenue for Loudoun County, Virginia. With Buddy's background in radio DJing, he may not have seemed like an ideal fit for the role, but his new position at the county's economic development authority came with a sense of urgency due to the bursting of the housing bubble.

Over 80% of the county's revenue was derived from residential real estate, which made it essential to find alternative sources of income.

At the time, the goal was to increase the commercial tax base from around 19% of revenue to approximately 23%. Today, nearly half of Loudoun County's tax revenue comes from commercial sources. To achieve this, Buddy Rizer turned to the aftermath of another recent bubble burst, the dot-com era. The county was once home to AOL's headquarters, which was the largest internet provider in the US by 2000.

Due to its proximity to the nation's capital and access to resources such as water and electricity, Loudoun quickly became the physical embodiment of the internet, responsible for the majority of American internet traffic.

However, after the dot-com crash and AOL's disastrous merger with Time Warner, much of that industry dried up, leaving Loudoun with vast, empty buildings and miles of already laid fiber optic cable. Rizer saw potential in the same factors that made Loudoun attractive to AOL, such as an internet exchange point, ample land, a government eager for investment, and a capable local electricity utility. This led to the development of a plan to attract data centers to the region.

Over the years, Loudoun County has earned the nickname "Data Center Alley" due to its dense concentration of data centers within its roughly 515 square miles. These facilities have contributed to the county's prosperity, with 22 new schools built in just the past 15 years, tax revenue from data centers exceeding the county's operational budget by $35 million in 2024, and a decline in real property tax rates for residents since 2008.

However, the rapid growth of data centers in Loudoun has recently begun to draw attention and controversy, as the current massive US buildout accelerates due to the widespread adoption of generative AI. This has led to a growing need for the physical infrastructure to support the vast amounts of "compute" required for processing power, with an estimated 3,000 data centers currently operating in the US and 1,500 more in development.