@nytimes: Loudoun County, Virginia, has been called the “data center capital of the world.” Cecilia Kang, who covers technology and regulatory policy for The New York Times, traveled to the to see how the A.I. boom is affecting the area. Video by Cecilia Kang, Laura Bult, Gilad Thaler, Jon Miller, Thomas Vollkommer, June Kim and Jeff Ricker/The New York Times #datacenter #datacenters #virginia #ai #artificialintelligence
The New York Times
Region: US
Wednesday 19 August 2026 15:15:40 GMT
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Zack_burns :
Can they not build them underground?
2026-08-19 23:31:54
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TA Photo Co. :
and then data storage will get smaller and they won't need that much space and it'll go to waste
2026-08-19 23:36:09
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Stuart :
I don't see a lot of employment with data centers outside of construction
2026-08-19 16:12:52
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Quinnifer :
and guess what, they're the RICHEST COUNTY IN THE US
2026-08-19 19:45:41
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bronzvillecondo :
This is AMERICA, it’s all a trade-off!!!
2026-08-19 23:29:26
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Lo ☀️🌻 :
Loudoun hasn’t been 30 mins from DC in like 10 years
2026-08-19 21:38:46
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Laura C :
You get a new library and a new cancer diagnosis at the same time. No thanks.
2026-08-19 20:50:32
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user4668415823468 :
I live in Ashburn and have seen the data center growth. we don't have a problem with it in the industrial side of town but now they are creeping right next to neighborhoods, clear cutting forests and there seems to be no stopping them. this article was pretty accurate but the other huge issue is the ugly massive power lines they are putting everywhere.
2026-08-19 17:07:35
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antisocialintrovert💙 :
You definitely gave more of a one-sided perspective of this. everyone you talked to at the Ashburn community center gave a somewhat positive opinion of data centers given the money we get from them. You should have interviewed the people in the townhouses in Sterling who deal with a constant high noise level of the data center down the street. One of the neighborhoods you drove through in Ashburn I recognize as the neighborhood that has been offered to be bought out so they can level them and build more data centers. or the people in Brambleton who are fighting to keep a high voltage power line from being put in their back yards and on school property because they need more power for data center. You should have talked to those people to see how it is truly affecting the those who live here.
2026-08-19 22:17:03
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fvc23 :
“Their school got a new playground” talking as if that is something extraordinary in the supposedly wealthiest country in the world smh
2026-08-19 16:26:11
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user1915086830249 :
Come back in 10 years most of them will be obsolete 😄 abandoned ugly boxes.
2026-08-19 17:08:04
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Mzsumthing :
There are no jobs! What has happen in northern Virginia - electric bills that have doubled! I’m sorry, libraries, parks, communities centers were here before data centers!
2026-08-19 18:03:53
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ThatDizzzyGirl :
Loudoun County has held the title of the richest county in the US by median household income for 19 consecutive years, before the data centers. Most residents hold advanced degrees and work in specialized tech and engineering fields. And for heaven’s sakes, it’s spelled LOUDOUN. Don’t let this garbage propaganda sell you a data center. The PTA paid for that playground. It used to be beautiful farm land out here and now this crap.
2026-08-19 22:36:06
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Jawnqui :
This makes a wonderful case for what we could expect if rich ppl and corps generally paid their share of taxes and those funds were used appropriately
2026-08-19 15:34:01
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PMS253 :
Report on the water pollution from data centers?!?
2026-08-19 18:41:12
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melissa.cc.4365 :
Worked for a data center in Ashburn for two years. It’s a weird experience. There are only a handful of employees and it’s just so strange to see HUGE buildings but no people. Beautiful homes, but weird concrete buildings everywhere. Would never live there. Not to mention it’s SO expensive to live there.
2026-08-19 19:18:35
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Manilishi Schminke :
I was just there.
2026-08-19 22:18:04
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sar.17 :
Used to be all farmland there. Virginia is being developed to hell
2026-08-19 18:03:18
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BeAGoodPerson 🇧🇪🇧🇪 :
We moved to Ashburn in 1994. We were surrounded by cow farms. We moved in 2025 because we were surrounded by data farms. And we had to pay higher taxes because we simply lived close to the metro.
2026-08-19 20:02:47
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moothecow23 :
Gotta put them somewhere, pals.
2026-08-19 15:51:54
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davidAmargolis :
Data centers get billions - school gets a playground, quite a trade off
2026-08-19 20:15:14
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sebbylyfe :
If you willingly choose to live in London county with all these data centers, you have lost your mind
2026-08-19 17:32:44
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Ricky M. :
There are NO tax benefits in Virginia!!! The data center may have provided a playground which may have cost $10,000 for millions of tax breaks.
2026-08-19 17:25:59
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shelsy :
WHY DORS THE US HAVE OVER 5 TIMES THE AMOUNT OF DATA CENTERS THAN BOTH CHINA AND INDIA????
2026-08-19 18:11:54
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Niklas :
Remind me…when did newspapers go from displaying Advertisements to just right away producing them
2026-08-19 16:15:31
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