Ana Fayguyin Loudoun County, Virginia
One of the first things you notice when you enter Loudoun County, Virginia is the buzzing sound. The hum is the sound of 199 data centers humming in the background.
Few people have heard of this under-the-radar region of Northern Virginia, which is also one of the wealthiest counties in the United States. But when a massive global Amazon outage disrupted everything from vital banking services to millions of hilarious Snapchat streaks earlier this week, Loudon was on everyone’s radar.
This is because the county has the world’s largest data storage and processing facilities, surpassing even those in China.
Data centers, spaces dedicated to computer systems that support the Internet and artificial intelligence, are essential for global connectivity.
But while it has proven to be a profitable business, contributing billions of dollars to the local economy, some residents fear it is too expensive.
Loudoun has about 200 facilities covering about 45 million square meters, giving the county the nickname Data Center Alley.
Data centers account for 3% of the county’s total land area and 40% of its budget.
And now more facilities are coming up.
Emily Kasabian was walking her newborn son along a picturesque neighborhood road in Virginia earlier this year when she noticed something and stopped.
This is a sign for a data center that is scheduled to move in across the street.
When Mr. Kasabian bought his home two years ago, he said he felt relieved to be free from the data centers that occupied other parts of the county. The lack of a center nearby has led many of her neighbors to decide to live there, she said.
“I never thought there would be a data center built across the street from my house,” she said. “If I had known what was happening across the street, I wouldn’t have bought this house.”
It’s not just their imposing appearance that makes her and many others opposed to these large-scale facilities. A typical data center can be 100,000 square feet, turning an entire street into a massive industrial park. However, it also has some side effects.
The large, bright blue concrete and glass data center is just steps from Greg Pirio’s front door in Loudoun County. When he bought the house 13 years ago, the land was full of green trees and chirping birds.
Now he’s covering the center’s impact in real time. What bothers him most is noise pollution.
“There are no more birds here.” He noted that the buzzing noise the center makes scares off many of the wildlife in his area.
In addition to noise concerns, residents in the area complained about increased electricity bills.
A Bloomberg News study found that wholesale electricity costs in areas near data centers have risen 267% over the past five years. establish
But while most local residents interviewed by the BBC were opposed to data centres, the industry has many strong supporters, including President Donald Trump.
Data centers are essential to growing the burgeoning AI industry, a sector where President Trump wants the United States to lead.
His administration said it would “accelerate federal licensing of data center infrastructure” to bring about a “golden age of American manufacturing and technology.”
The center could also have a major impact on local and state economies. The data center industry creates about 74,000 jobs each year and generates a total of $5.5 billion (£4 billion) in labor income to Virginia’s economy, according to a state audit.
Loudoun County first saw the potential and began growing this new industry about 10 years ago.
Developers realized this area was the perfect location for a data center. It was full of flat, cheap land.
Local officials soon got on board and began giving companies like Amazon and Google permission to begin construction of facilities.
And there was one more thing in the region’s quest to create a headquarters for its new and burgeoning industry. It was just the right talent.
“Northern Virginia was really the center of Internet growth and where AOL was headquartered, so of course it was easier to create (a data center) because the talent was there and the people were already there,” said Thomas Hyslip, a cybersecurity expert.
Regulation of the centers has been limited since the industry began booming early this century.
Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin vetoed a state bill earlier this year that would have regulated the centers.
Dan Diori, vice president of national policy for the Data Center Coalition, an industry group, said the industry needs to do a better job of publicizing the benefits of these centers and listening to people’s concerns. But he doesn’t think more regulation is needed.
Data centers aren’t going anywhere, he said. They are and will continue to be “the backbone of the 21st century economy.”
But some residents, like Barbara Day, say people shouldn’t have to choose between the economy and quality of life.
“These data centers are growing faster than we realize, and we’re working backwards to fix them,” she said.
As of August 2025, there were more than 1,100 data centers across the United States, with nearly 400 new centers under construction, according to market reports.
Activists like Kasabian hope to chip away at those numbers by lobbying state and local legislatures to delay or pause projects.
“This is a beautiful place to live, but if these types of developments continue to encroach, what makes this a great place to live is being eroded, and if we don’t change course in a major way, we will soon see the results,” she said.
The mother of two knows she may not win this fight and that a data center could soon open across the road from her idyllic suburb, forcing her family to make the difficult decision to move.
“The question is, how do we know if we want to stay in the county and the same thing won’t happen next time we move?”
Mei Ying Wu’s video
