The rush to build Ohio data centers tells us everything that’s wrong with local and state government

By: Zeb Larson

Outlets: Ohio Capital Journal

Published: February 19, 2026

Words: 902

Last Updated: 2 weeks, 5 days ago

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Central Ohio is ground zero of the data center gold rush (or Tulipmania).

Driven in part by generative AI, companies like Meta, AWS (Amazon Web Services), and others are frantically building new data centers that will supply computing power for LLMs (Large Language Models) as well as other digital infrastructure.

Ohio is already home to more than 200 data centers, with another 77 by the year 2030.

These data …

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