It's driving up the price of rural land as some farmers and property owners buy in and others push back against development.
https://www.cnbc.com/2026/09/06/ai-data-centers-are-transforming-rural-land-markets-fueling-backlash.html
It's driving up the price of rural land as some farmers and property owners buy in and others push back against development.
https://www.cnbc.com/2026/09/06/ai-data-centers-are-transforming-rural-land-markets-fueling-backlash.html
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From the article
At a July protest against data centers in Lubbock, Texas, state Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller took the microphone to share his concerns about data center land grabs in his home state. But what he said could apply to what’s happening in dozens of states across the U.S.
“When [data centers] first started popping up, nobody really knew much about them,” he said at the protest. “I found out real quick that they were taking up our very best farmland. … And [developers] give sometimes 10 times the value, so it’s hard for farmers to turn that down.
Nationwide, investments in computing power sparked by the new technology of artificial intelligence have set off a commercial land rush, sending property values soaring in unlikely and out-of-the-way places.
Don’t buy it.
While I am 100% against data centers and think they are bad….. even if EVERY project was approved it would have a negligible effect on land markets.
There are plenty of real reasons to oppose data centers without inventing fake ones.