What it looks like in the world’s data center capital

Among cemeteries, baseball fields and homes, these Northern Virginia buildings power the internet.

As artificial intelligence usage soars, so has demand for data centers to power it. Cities are grappling with what that means for their residents’ electricity bills and the reality of living in the internet’s shadow. Some areas have embraced it; others have resisted. For many people, myself included, the machinery behind the AI revolution is difficult to visualize.

For the past two years, I’ve set out to capture that infrastructure in the data center capital: Northern Virginia. Located just outside of D.C., this region houses the towering, gray warehouses that process, by some estimates, nearly 70 percent of global digital traffic. Here in the world’s internet hub, residents have long shouldered the costs of powering our insatiable digital demand.

The structures are built between baseball fields, schools, homes and historic cemeteries.

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