The AI ​​boom heralds a new gold rush in the American West

DDriving on the highway through the dry Nevada desert, there is little sign that the sagebrush-covered hills hide a vast expanse of new construction. But just behind a massive power plant and transmission towers jutting into the dusty brown mountains lies one of the world’s largest new data center constructions – miles of new concrete buildings housing millions of computer servers.

This industrial park, called the Tahoe-Reno Industrial Center, has a sprawling land area larger than the city of Denver. It is home to the largest data center in the USA, built by the Switch company, and technology giants such as Google and Microsoft have also bought land here and are building huge facilities. A separate Apple data center complex is located next door. Tesla’s gigafactory, which produces batteries for electric vehicles, is also located here.

In the…