Arizona Deal Latest Sign of Booming Demand for Sites to Power AI
August 28, 2024
Tract’s $136 million purchase of 2,100-acre site near Phoenix represents the next big thing in land speculation: finding sites to power a new wave of data centers.
The rise in artificial intelligence is fueling a new breed of speculator: those focused on buying and selling land for power-hungry data centers that serve as the backbone for AI, cloud computing and other internet technologies. In the latest deal, a startup data-center land-development firm this week paid $136 million for a 2,100-acre site outside of Phoenix with a 15-year plan to convert it into one of the nation’s largest data-center complexes.