In a Wisconsin Land Rush, Data Centers Made Them Millionaires

Janesville becomes battleground in AI data center debate

Artificial intelligence is fueling stock market highs, economic growth and a construction boom across the country. But it is also igniting fierce local debates about the benefits, the costs and whether the data centers that power AI should be built at all. Economics correspondent Paul Solman looks at how one of those battles is playing out in the Midwest.

Janesville, once a symbol of the Great Recession, becomes AI data center battleground

Artificial intelligence is fueling stock market highs, economic growth and a construction boom across the country. But it is also igniting fierce local debates about the benefits, the costs and whether the data centers that power AI should be built at all. Economics correspondent Paul Solman looks at how one of those battles is playing out in the Midwest.

In a Wisconsin land rush, data centers made them millionaires

This story also appeared in Wisconsin Examiner Whether artificial intelligence data centers are essential to modern life, an existential threat or something in between, one impact is clear: As they pave over homes and farmland, they are minting millionaires — and even generation-changing wealth. In Wisconsin, the clearest example is in Port Washington, a city of 13,000 north of Milwaukee where a 672-acre data center is under construction.  Some …