Second Major Virginia Data Center Project Dies, Raising AI Site Selection Stakes

A county board in Virginia unanimously rejected a proposed 43 million-square-foot data center campus, marking the second major AI infrastructure project to fail in the region within days. The rejections signal a fundamental shift in how developers evaluate new data center sites: local government approval has become as critical as power availability, fiber infrastructure, and land access. Experts note that communities are increasingly scrutinizing impacts like transmission infrastructure, electrical substations, groundwater effects, and traffic, while developers now prioritize sites where political support and utility planning align before committing capital. These consecutive setbacks suggest that even in America's most established data center market, obtaining local entitlement is now a determining factor in whether AI infrastructure projects proceed from proposal to construction.