Too often, conversations about data centers are presented as an either-or: tech companies versus local communities, or economic growth versus environmental protection.
That is the wrong debate.
The real challenge is whether communities, businesses, utilities, investors and public leaders can work together to support the infrastructure a growing digital economy requires while planning carefully for the future.
Digital infrastructure has become as essential to modern life as roads, railroads, ports and power plants were for previous generations. Local businesses, schools and hospitals rely on it. Families rely on it every day, often without realizing it.
As demand for artificial intelligence, cloud computing, streaming, cybersecurity, advanced manufacturing and digital services continues to grow, communities across the country are grappling with how best to accommodate that growth while preserving the qualities that make those localities strong.
The answer is not to stop progress. Nor is it to ignore legitimate community questions. The answer is to ensure growth is guided by transparency, collaboration and careful planning.
Virginia’s clear example
Virginia offers a clear example of why this issue is more connected than it first appears.
Through retirement accounts, pension funds, mutual funds, index funds and direct investments, millions of Americans own shares in the hyper-scale technology companies driving the data center boom.
The Virginia Retirement System reported a record investment portfolio of $122.8 billion for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2025, and paid $6.8 billion in retirement benefits that year, with investment earnings funding approximately two-thirds of those payments.
VRS holds significant positions in companies such as Microsoft, Amazon, Alphabet, Apple and NVIDIA — each of them central to the artificial intelligence, cloud computing and digital services now reshaping Virginia’s power grid, economy and landscape.
That means Virginia teachers, state employees, law enforcement officers, local government workers and other public retirees have a direct interest in the long-term health of the companies building America’s digital infrastructure.
That gives Virginians more than a financial stake in the industry’s success. It gives them a responsibility — and an opportunity — to help shape how that success is achieved.
Connection matters
If retirees and future retirees benefit when artificial intelligence, cloud computing and digital services grow, then they also have an interest in making sure the infrastructure behind that growth is built the right way.
Poor planning, grid strain, water conflicts, local opposition and permitting battles are not just public policy problems. They are business risks. They can delay projects, raise costs, damage reputations and invite political backlash that freezes investment for years.
Building the future the right way is not only a civic obligation — it’s in the financial interest of the very people who own pieces of this industry. That is the tens of millions of Americans who own shares of those businesses.
That does not mean dismissing local concerns. It means embracing them.
Data centers consume significant amounts of electricity and, in some cases, water. Their clustering in certain regions can stress infrastructure that was never designed for them. Land-use conflicts are real. Communities deserve transparency about energy demand, water usage, tax treatment, noise, transmission needs and long-term infrastructure obligations.
The answer should be collaboration, not obstruction.
History’s warnings
Railroads, highways, petrochemicals, manufacturing and even the early internet created enormous public value. They also left behind avoidable costs when builders, regulators, investors and communities failed to work together early enough.
Critics often waited until damage was done. Builders too often treated every concern as opposition. Regulators reacted late. The result was mistrust, litigation, delay and problems that became far more expensive to solve later.
We should not repeat those mistakes with the digital economy.
The better path is practical engagement. Investors, tech firms, utilities, local governments, environmental advocates and community leaders should be at the same table before conflict hardens into opposition.
There is room for common ground: smarter grid planning, water recycling, waste heat recovery, co location with new energy generation, improved transmission, workforce partnerships and community benefit agreements that make host regions genuine partners.
Owners should help lead
Shareholders can ask better questions. Pension trustees can press for stronger, careful planning. Civic leaders can demand transparency without demonizing investment. Companies can earn trust by treating communities as partners rather than obstacles.
For Virginia retirees, this is not an abstract debate. It is about the security of retirement checks, the competitiveness of the commonwealth, and the kind of economy their children and grandchildren will inherit.
A stronger digital economy can support public pensions, expand opportunity and strengthen Virginia’s position as a national leader. Poor planning can trigger backlash, litigation and lost opportunity for everyone.
Our children and grandchildren will live in a world shaped by digital infrastructure. They should inherit neither a stalled economy nor a damaged landscape. They should inherit what we have painfully learned: it is better to plan, cooperate and correct the mistakes of the past before they become the burdens of the future.
We’re already $40 trillion in debt. Actually, we’re not — our kids are.
The digital economy is the future. We can build it together. That is the right way.
Chris Saxman is the executive director of Virginia FREE, a business group. He is also a former state legislator from Staunton.
