As Big Tech’s data centers continue to grow threatening to overload U.S. electricity grids, policymakers are considering bumping the energy-hungry data centers off grids during power emergencies

Spending on data center construction in the US was up 40% in June, Bank of America Global Research says.

Data center construction is slowing nationwide as U.S. electrical infrastructure struggles to keep up with demand, according to a CBRE report. Nationally, data centers totaling 5,242.5 megawatts were under construction in the first half of the year, down 17.4 percent from 6,350.1 megawatts in 2024, according to the brokerage.

The increasing power demands of data centers are adding urgency to grid resiliency and renewable energy projects. Data center electricity use is expected to grow 300% by 2035 as hyperscale cloud computing companies race to adopt new technologies,

Shares in data center infrastructure company Vertiv ( VRT -0.55%) rose by 9.4% in the week through Friday morning. The move comes in an exciting week for the artificial intelligence (AI) and data center market.

"As utilities race to meet AI-driven energy demand, infrastructure costs are rising and those costs are passed [on] to everyday ratepayers," Aaron Wright, CEO of Solomon Group and Solomon e3, a climate tech company focused on equitable energy solutions for underserved communities, tells Realtor.com.

Data centers make up significant proportions of both companies’ water use. In 2023, Meta consumed 813 million gallons of water globally (3.1 billion liters) — 95% of which, 776 million gallons (2.9 billion liters), was used by data centers.

Since the start of the year, Morgan County officials have rezoned nearly 400 acres of farmland for light industrial use and approved a series of tax abatements to make way for the project.

Different states are responding to that reality in different ways, but some are looking for large tech companies to foot the bill for their own projects, the Associated Press reported. Massive data centers built by tech corporations like Microsoft, Google, Amazon, and Meta are springing up across America.

North Carolina communities are weighing data centers’ promises of jobs and revenue against risks of higher power bills, grid strain, and climate costs.