FOX Enterprise’ Ashley Webster reviews on ‘huge’ information facilities sprouting up throughout the U.S. at speedy charges, creating jobs but in addition detractors on ‘Making Cash.’
It’s a digital gold rush as data-center growth sweeps by means of small-town America.
As demand for synthetic intelligence, cloud computing and digital storage surges, builders are racing to safe land, energy and water.
That development is turning into more and more concentrated: almost 1% of U.S. counties, roughly 33, now account for 72% of all data-center exercise as of July 2025, in accordance with a current Goldman Sachs evaluation. However the map is altering nearly day by day.
One Georgia group is experiencing that shift in actual time.
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Newton County, about an hour east of Atlanta, is one among 4 counties that host Meta’s Stanton Springs campus.
FOX Enterprise was granted an unique look inside the power, which opened in 2018 and has continued to increase, with a second campus now underneath building. The 1,000-acre website homes eight huge buildings, every roughly the size of 4 soccer fields, filled with rows of high-speed servers buzzing 24/7. The cable community is lengthy sufficient to achieve the moon and again. And it’s the place information for Fb, Instagram, WhatsApp and Meta’s different platforms is processed and pushed at document speeds.
Expertise inside Meta’s Stanton Springs Information Middle in Social Circle, Georgia. (FOX Enterprise Community)
It’s simply one among 26 information facilities at present underneath building or already in manufacturing within the U.S., with much more development on the horizon.
“I’ve been within the trade for over 20 years, and I’ve by no means seen this degree of give attention to information facilities,” KC Timmons, director of SiteOps World Operations at Meta, informed FOX Enterprise. “It is modern. There’s a lot good that we are able to do.”
Meta’s arrival was largely welcomed, and its funding has change into a significant financial anchor for the area, creating a whole bunch of jobs, supporting native contractors and producing long-term tax income for faculties and public companies. The corporate now employs roughly 400 individuals in HVAC, electrical, operations and technical roles, most of them employed from the encompassing group.
| Ticker | Safety | Final | Change | Change % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| META | META PLATFORMS INC. | 673.42 | +11.89 | +1.80% |
However Meta’s presence now sits alongside the explosive development the county has skilled simply this 12 months. And never everyone seems to be thrilled about it.
“It’s all pie within the sky,” Newton County Commissioner LeAnne Lengthy informed FOX Enterprise. “It’s not what they are saying it’s. These large builders are available in with profitable guarantees like zoning, water, electrical energy. It’s the largest smoke-and-mirror factor you’ve ever seen.”
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Lengthy, who can also be an actual property dealer within the area, questions what occurs years from now if the trade’s footprint shifts and the large buildings are not wanted.
“What occurs to the communities that we’ve misplaced?” Lengthy requested.
Newton County has change into one of the vital aggressive information heart build-out zones in Georgia. Since January alone, native officers say 11 further information facilities are in varied phases of planning or building. Amazon has already begun constructing on a $25 million acreage buy – about $50,000 per acre – powered by Georgia Energy. And in close by Social Circle, the place Meta is positioned and which spans each Newton and Walton counties, officers have zoned seven extra data-center tasks with no long-term land-use plan in place.
Workers inside Meta’s Stanton Springs Information Middle in Social Circle, Georgia. (FOX Enterprise Community)
“Some would say we’re constructing the aircraft whereas flying it,” Serra Corridor, govt director of the Newton County Industrial Improvement Authority, informed FOX Enterprise.
Serra stated Meta’s success has drawn a wave of recent curiosity to the area, making technique and coordination extra necessary than ever. For the reason that starting of the 12 months, she says her cellphone has been ringing off the hook with inquiries from firms trying to construct close by.
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A part of the explanation the expansion is accelerating so quickly is the county’s entry to energy, proximity to I-20 and the in depth fiber infrastructure established by Meta. By way of the Open Compute Challenge that Meta co-founded, the initiative to create open-source {hardware} for scalable and environment friendly information facilities has helped drive down prices. The OCP initiative actively encourages and facilitates extra firms to construct and undertake high-efficiency information heart infrastructure.
“We’re making an attempt to deliver everybody to the desk and sluggish issues down,” Corridor stated. “It’s about engaged on the trail collectively. It takes good planning.”
Meta’s Stanton Springs Information Middle in Social Circle, Georgia. (FOX Enterprise Community)
The inflow of information facilities brings advantages past jobs. Since 2022, when Meta’s first taxable buildings got here on-line, the corporate has contributed $12 million in cumulative tax income – a quantity anticipated to rise as building continues. Earlier than Meta arrived, the identical land had been off the tax digest for almost 20 years underneath authorities possession.
Meta has additionally launched initiatives to help small companies, similar to workshops instructing native house owners how you can develop by means of Instagram Reels. Amazon, in the meantime, has partnered with Newton County Colleges and Goodr to open a no-cost grocery retailer offering college students with contemporary produce and shelf-stable meals.
| Ticker | Safety | Final | Change | Change % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AMZN | AMAZON.COM INC. | 229.53 | +0.42 | +0.18% |
Nonetheless, residents say the guarantees don’t all the time match their lived expertise. A number of main producers – together with Meta, Rivian and Takeda – have partnered to recycle water again into the group, however issues persist as the event footprint grows.
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“This all has simply change into so well-liked since Jan. 1,” Lengthy stated. “I didn’t even know what a knowledge heart was a 12 months and a half in the past. We’ve simply been bombarded.”
Lengthy careworn that Meta itself isn’t the problem – its campus sits in a chosen enterprise zone and hasn’t disrupted residential life. Her concern is the wave of newcomers, the chance of future vacant megastructures, and the impact speculative growth might have on dwelling values.
For longtime residents, the tempo of building is turning into tougher to disregard.
Lisa Miller, 64, lives close to land that after held a lumber mill and is now Amazon’s lively building website.
An Amazon information heart building website in Oxford, Georgia. (FOX Enterprise Community)
“We’re not a giant place,” Miller informed FOX Enterprise. “Individuals out listed here are into cattle, horses.” The realm has shifted amongst rural, suburban and industrial makes use of for many years, however by no means at this velocity.
Blasting and heavy building have additionally raised security issues. Miller described one neighbor’s expertise: “She heard the blast – after which her entire lounge ceiling fell in.”
Amazon informed FOX Enterprise its $11 billion funding will allow AI innovation and create 1000’s of jobs, from community engineers to building staff, and in addition give again to the group.
“As we construct these amenities over the subsequent a number of years, we stay dedicated to being good neighbors,” a spokesperson stated.
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Vitality demand is one other rising concern. Information facilities will use roughly 8% of all U.S. energy by 2030, and U.S. utilities might want to make investments round $50 billion in new technology capability to help the amenities, in accordance with Goldman Sachs.
Inside Meta’s Stanton Springs Information Middle in Social Circle, Georgia. (FOX Enterprise Community)
Regardless of the anxieties, native leaders and residents agree that the answer isn’t to reject the trade – it’s to sluggish the tempo, coordinate and plan for long-term penalties.
Meta, because the area’s earliest anchor, has dedicated to supplying extra renewable power than it consumes and turning into water-positive by 2030, aiming to mannequin accountable growth.
“If I might say one thing to the entire nation, it will be: suppose it by means of,” Miller stated. “Plan it. Don’t simply stick ’em in each cow pasture that goes up on the market.”
