Sebastian Rucci identified the block of brown earth in late 2024, drawn to a site sandwiched between sprawling alfalfa fields and sleepy desert suburbs. The location, just north of the Mexican border, regularly sees temperatures above 100F (37.8C), relies on scarce water from the beleaguered Colorado River, and requires winning over a city of 22,000 people. Rucci, a lawyer with a complicated past, is part of a new class of middlemen in the burgeoning datacenter development world.
The rapid rise of artificial intelligence, galvanized by Silicon Valley companies worth trillions of dollars, has fueled one of the biggest industrial construction booms in history. AI requires far more computing power than traditional internet services, and that means building enormous new structures to house millions of servers.
For the residents of Imperial, the prospect of an energy-guzzling neighbor has met skepticism. Controversial datacenter projects have sprung up across the US, and many locals are wary of what such a facility would mean for their desert town. For Rucci, however, none of the obstacles, from extreme heat to scarce water to local opposition, seem insurmountable. The fight over the project continues.