Northern Virginia is the largest data center market in the U.S., with about 275 data centers that handle at least one-third of global internet use.
The “data center rush” isn’t stopping anytime soon. Last month, Amazon announced plans to invest $35B by 2040 to support the development of new data centers in Virginia.
- Some Virginia government officials view the data center expansion as beneficial to the state overall. Gov. Glenn Youngkin stated
that the AWS data centers “offer robust utility infrastructure, lower
costs, great livability, and highly educated workforces.”
- However,
some residents and government officials argue that cloud companies have
a stronghold over the region and effectively harm the surrounding
environment due to excessive resource consumption and noise pollution
from cooling fans.
- Virginia
state delegate Danica Roem emphasized that the revenue brought in from
the data centers comes at a high cost for residents, stating, “If you’re
going to be paid a lot of revenue, millions of dollars, believe me,
there’s going to be an impact on your community.”
- The
data center industry generates significant economic revenue and is also
a major employer in Northern Virginia. Nearly 13,500 people in Virginia
work in the data center industry, which has created 45,000 jobs in
total.
