Data Centers

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🤠🦞 The two extremes of data centers

The Elemental Critical Data Center facility in Austin. Photo: Brandon Bell/Getty Images The nationwide AI buildout boom is separating the friendliest states from the most resistant, with Texas and Maine on opposite ends, Axios' Maria Curi writes. 🟢 Texas, with its low electricity prices and abundance of land, is drawing a wave of data center investment. Texas has 212 operating data centers as of 2024, and 651 have been announced. 157 are under construction, beating Virginia. The state offers one of the nation's most generous tax incentives, worth more than $1 billion annually. 🔴 Maine is moving the other way. The nation's first statewide moratorium on new data center construction is headed to the desk of Gov. Janet Mills (D). It's unclear whether she'll sign it. The temporary ban would give a state council 18 months to assess the approach.