US Data Center Growth Driven by AI and Cloud Demand

The article by McKinsey authors analyzes the rapid growth and investment in data center infrastructure driven by AI and cloud computing demand in the United States.

• $7 trillion global investment by 2030, with over 40% in the US; Northern Virginia holds 13% of global capacity, demonstrating strategic regional growth.
• Challenges include power supply strain (460 TWh increase by 2030), water scarcity, resource bottlenecks, and community pushback; Ohio’s $10B+ AWS expansion and AEP’s $2.82B transmission build-out exemplify coordinated infrastructure and workforce initiatives.