Oil And Gas Hubs Are The New Centers Of Gravity For Data Centers

An industry that was once tightly clustered in just a handful of places is suddenly spreading across the U.S., with remote areas that were once strangers to data centers becoming new digital infrastructure hubs.

Several factors are driving this change in the site selection math for Big Tech's data centers, from local political opposition to the evolving computing needs of artificial intelligence. But the predominant force shaping the data center industry’s new geography is the availability of power as developers race to build campuses that consume gigawatts of electricity that utilities are struggling to provide. 

Increasingly, this means building in locations where natural gas is most abundant...