@verge: Today, Loudoun County has another moniker: Data Center Alley. Over just a small portion of its roughly 515 square miles, it’s home to about 250 data centers, the densest concentration in the world. Even in Loudoun, where the existence of data centers has been a fact of life for nearly two decades, Buddy Rizer says that in the last few years, community opposition has become more vocal. “Before then, people understood what we were doing,” he says. These days, residents seem more aware of the inconveniences. With its long history hosting data centers, Loudoun residents have more recently taken to calling it something new: the canary in the coal mine of data center development. Want to know what the country’s future looks like? Loudoun County’s past gives a strong glimpse of it. Read more from Lauren Feiner at the link in our profile. Photos by Stephen Voss

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Tuesday 27 October 2026 19:32:27 GMT