How Rural Communities Are Shaping the AI Buildout

By Sadie Darbro

In early 2026, family farmers, Ida Huddleston and Delsia Bare, made headlines when they declined a $26 million deal to sell their northern Kentucky farmland for the development of a 2,000-acre data center. The national coverage of their story highlights an increasing role that rural communities play in the nationwide expansion of data center infrastructure. These and similar stories, from Utah to North Carolina, reveal how rural communities’ apprehension towards data center development is becoming a nationwide trend.

Background

Data centers are physical facilities that host hardware, software, networking components enterprises, and other information technology infrastructure that enable the building and operating of applications and services.^[1] They are the physical infrastructure that support internet-based digital services, like cloud storage, social media, online shopping, and training artificial intelligence (AI) models.^[2] Increased investment in data center development is driven by the boom in generative AI and the need to train and run new models.

As of January 2026, the U.S. has 3,000 operational centers, with another 1,300 in various stages of construction.^[3] A third of all operating data centers in the U.S. are in Virginia, Texas, and California.^[4] However, there is a geographic shift in the newly planned data centers, with 39% of planned data centers being in areas that currently don’t have one and 67% of planned data centers being in rural areas.^[5]

Increasing need for more computing power has led tech companies to invest in hyperscale data centers.^[6] These warehouse-sized facilities host at least 5,000 servers, often ranging in the tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of square feet.^[7] In 2024, the physical footprint of an average data center is roughly 450 football fields or 224 acres.^[8] Hyperscale data centers are even larger, with the biggest campuses reaching approximately 760 football fields or 1,000 acres^[9].

Rural areas that have available and cheap land are attractive sites for the construction of these facilities. Yet, early research has found that despite national narratives around the imperative for data center infrastructure, local sentiment and response deeply impact the success of these projects^[10]. Rural communities are concerned about resource allocation, like water management and electricity costs, and fear that data centers will negatively impact affordability.^[11] Cultural and societal concerns are even more salient, with many fearing that data centers will change their community’s way of life and decrease the community’s agency over its future.^[12] Intertwined with these issues are environmental and energy concerns, as data center projects fundamentally change the landscape of the land and are incredibly energy intensive.^[13]

Despite community concerns, data centers’ development has the potential to bring economic and infrastructure benefits to rural communities. Construction of these facilities creates hundreds of temporary jobs for construction professionals and full-time jobs for facilities managers, security staff, and technicians.^[14] Data centers also have the potential to generate tax revenue.

Case studies

In the following case studies, I examine the concerns raised by rural communities to better understand their perspectives and how local leadership or development companies are addressing those concerns.

Box Elder County, Utah

In Northern Utah, the Stratos artificial intelligence data center, backed by Kevin O’Leary, has received community pushback. The planned 40,000-acre facility was approved in a 3-0 decision by the Box Elder County Commissioners. However, commissioners are claiming that they received details of the energy project in the “last hour,” bringing external lawyers to aid in the process. According to analysis of the hundreds of comments from Box Elder County residents, the Salt Lake Tribune found overwhelming local opposition. On May 14^th, a letter opposing the project was signed by 6,000 people and delivered by a group gathered in Utah’s capitol. Community members are pursuing a referendum on the project. Located north of the Great Salt Lake, there are concerns over the project’s environmental impact on the water supply from the lake, which is already experiencing record-level water loss. However, according to the Utah Governor’s Office, the project will not draw from the Great Salt Lake, and its closed-loop system will make this facility more water efficient than traditional data centers^[15]. Additionally, the facility development is supposed to occur in phases over multiple years, allowing continued community input.^[16]

Stokes County North Carolina

In Stokes County, North Carolina, approximately 1,845 acres have been rezoned for the construction of Project Delta, a hyperscale data center. The rezoning of land was approved by the Stokes County Board of Commissioners in January 2026 and drew strong opposition from the local community. Residents had concerns about environmental impact and noise pollution. Stokes County is home to the Dan River and 160,000 acres of forests. The organization suing Stokes County over the planned data center, Southern Environmental Law Center, highlights the indigenous history of the land and the disproportionate environmental burdens that Black communities along the Dan River have faced.

Community apprehension towards the project may also be related to a 2014 incident where 39,000 tons of coal ash were spilled into the Dan River^[17]. The coal ash came from a facility operated by Duke Energy, the company that is supposed to eventually power the data center.^[18] Engineer Land Solutions, the firm developing Project Delta, addresses these concerns to some degree on the project website, making commitments towards environmental stewardship, limiting disruptions to daily life, and creating economic opportunities for the Walnut Grove and Stoke County communities.

Conclusion

Rural communities will continue to play a crucial role in the national build-out of data centers, impacting the country’s ability to compete in the global AI race. Due to the rapid pace at which data centers are being proposed and built, rural communities feel there is a lack of transparency and consideration for the people that will be hosting these facilities. Initial perceptions of community exclusion detract from later reassurances from technology companies and development firms regarding environmental degradation, resource allocation, and general disruptions to ways of life. Understanding the perspective of rural communities and challenges they pose to data center development is important in creating inclusive solutions that facilitate community engagement in the build-out of data centers.

Reader Question

How can the UChicago community better engage with and advocate for rural communities when participating in activities that contribute to data center development?

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