Liberty Exposé: The AI Gold Rush

Nevada, 1904. Two prospectors strike gold, and within a year the nearby tent camp of Rhyolite swells to 2,000 people. Railroads arrive as wooden shacks are redressed into stone buildings, and by 1907 the town boasted banks, electricity, and nearly 10,000 residents. Three years later, following a financial panic and drying mines, only 675 souls remain. In less than a decade, Rhyolite made the short journey from boomtown to ghost town.

Although families aren’t closing up shop and heading out west to find their fortunes in “them thar hills”, the United States is undeniably in the midst of a modern gold rush. Just not for gold. Instead, silicone is the precious metal of today, as the Artificial Intelligence industry cements itself as one of America’s fastest growing markets, estimated to reach $1,339 billion in 2030. To capitalize on the surging AI Boom, almost 3,000 AI data centers are currently under construction or scheduled, adding to thousands of such centers already scattered across America. But all that glitters may not be gold, or silicone for that matter. While the AI industry is undoubtedly on track to generate technological revolutions and previously unforeseen amounts of revenue, for small town and rural Americans, the buildout of data centers may turn their homes into the modern equivalent of a boomtown. Or worse. The Appalachian company towns of old.

The AI Gold Rush

States are racing to ensure they’re not left behind in the high-stakes game of obtaining AI’s economic payload. Seeking to foster the development of AI data centers within their own borders, states are employing a variety of tax incentive tactics to secure their place and plate at the financial AI banquet. But state legislators aren’t the political instigators of the AI data center push; they’re following the lead of the federal government. In 2025, the Trump administration unloosed the AI Action Plan, a policy roadmap geared towards keeping America at the forefront of the global AI competition. Accompanying this framework are a series of executive orders, one of which accelerates the federal permitting process for AI data centers and simplifies or removes regulations that may pose a barrier to the future of American AI dominance.

It’s easy to see the economic appeal, for both the federal government and individual states, when the AI data center industry’s annual contribution to America’s GDP rose from $355 billion in 2017 to a staggering $727 billion in 2023. The industry’s overall tax contributions totaled $715.5 billion during the same period, and according to Harvard economist Jason Furman, AI investments were responsible for almost 92% of American GDP growth in the first half of 2025. Disregarding the industry from a fiscal standpoint, the United States has a vested interest in cultivating a thriving AI sector from the angle of national defense. Advancements in AI are the ever-increasing vehicles of war that will govern the battlefields of tomorrow, and such innovations are paramount to securing American interests at home and abroad.

But while federal and state legislation advocates for further extension of AI data centers and the industry as a whole, American citizens are questioning whether the AI Boom will cultivate the Edenic prosperity politicians and media outlets are calculating their algorithms upon.

From Boomtown to Company Town

The prospect of an AI data center being constructed in “Any Town, USA”, generates a wave of excitement for politicians eager to see the seemingly limitless financial milk-and-honey flow into their communities, regardless of the scope and size of these facilities. After all, building an average hyperscale AI data center employs anywhere from 1,500 to 3,000 construction workers between an 18-24 month period.

But the aftermath of development paints a different picture. Once construction of these AI data centers is finished, contractors and their commerce vanish as well. Moreover, the bulk of jobs these AI data centers produce are during construction alone, as high-performance AI data centers typically employ only 100 workers in an operational capacity.

“Data centers have rightly earned a dismal reputation of creating the lowest number of jobs per square foot in their facilities”— John Johnson

States utilize tax exemptions to reel in potential AI data center developers, yet the short-term economic gains from exemptions are lackluster when compared to the potential tax revenue that these states are losing out on. The total tax revenue conceded to exemptions and subsidies recently tallied around $3.1 billion across 10 states. While some states may receive Payment-In-Lieu-Of-Taxes (PILOT) from these AI companies, real economic benefits struggle to reach those living in the shadows of these data centers.

Beyond false narratives of financial fortunes to be staked, residents in communities containing an AI data center face a host of economic and ecological consequences. AI data centers require massive wattages of electricity, skyrocketing power costs for Americans citizens. In the Northeast, utility costs for an average household increased $122 per month. Energy costs for communities surrounding AI data centers rose 267% compared to those five years prior. The implementation of an AI data center even affects the housing market, leading to housing shortages and an increased cost in rent as infamously highlighted in Abilene, Texas. AI data centers consume Deluge levels of water for system cooling purposes, with typical facilities consuming the equivalent of a 1,000 households. For a large-scale center, the water demand soars to the equivalent of a town with a population of upwards of 50,000. The water demands of these AI infrastructures can lead to outright water shortages, as 2/3s of AI data centers built or under construction since 2022 reside in water impoverished regions. The financial and natural fallout resulting from the surge of AI data center development will arguably fall hardest on rural areas, posing challenges for landscapes dominated by farmland. This burden has landed squarely on the shoulders of the South, disproportionately affecting communities of color.

Most shockingly of all, there is an utter lack of transparency from state legislators when it comes to disclosing the development of AI data centers within municipalities and townships. Tech companies routinely employ nondisclosure agreements (NDAs) to conceal the development of their AI data centers. Often, residents are left out-of-the-know until the concrete begins to be poured. This complete absence of disclosure has culminated in communities across America standing against the encroachment of AI data centers. From California, to Wisconsin, and even Marion, South Carolina, citizens are joining together with sympathetic lawmakers to oppose the construction of AI data centers in the towns they call home.

Numerous American small towns have been recast under the data center mold of the AI gold rush, and the boomtowns are in full swing. But these communities tread dangerously close to permanently transforming into a 21st century version of the company towns that once saturated rural America, complete with an uncanny parallel of concerns. Tech giants might not have a monopoly on every industry in town, but when their data centers are the biggest fish in the pond and draw in the most water (no pun intended), communities are left with little choice but to hedge their economic interests on a distant, cloud-based corporation.

It falls to local, state, and federal lawmakers, regardless of political affiliation or party lines, to ensure the long-term needs of their constituents and the areas they call home aren’t obscured in the alluring haze of instant economic gratification brought about by the sprawling AI gold rush. As midterm elections approach, and a presidential election two years away, Americans are calling for politicians to stake their campaign trails with the American people, not prospectors seeking silicone in their own backyards.

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