The first thing visitors approaching Quincy, Washington see is dry rolling hills, cleaved by the Columbia River. The second, a sign laying claim to the title of the nation's "leading potato producing county." But today, Quincy is known for a more lucrative commodity: vast stretches of data centers powering the modern internet and artificial intelligence boom.

Data centers make everything from ChatGPT to online medical records possible. The appetite for ever more internet-connected things and AI applications is leading to a boom in data center building across the country. Fueled by hundreds of billions in capital expenditures and enthusiasm from the Trump administration , the data center bonanza offers a tempting promise: that small towns could find a new industrial anchor, bringing go

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