An artificial intelligence boom has driven a surge in data centers , with new sites rapidly dotting the country — including in the Upstate, where two recently announced facilities are expected to bring a combined $5 billion in investment.

Those data centers offer a sharp contrast in how these sites impact the surrounding communities, with one expected to follow the traditional narrative that these facilities use tremendous amounts of water and electricity, and another that aims for energy self-sufficiency.

NorthMark Strategies — the one planning a smaller footprint — announced in April a $2.76 billion investment in Spartanburg County to transform a former manufacturing facility into a high-performance computing center. Two months later, Cielo Digital Infrastructure announced a $2.

See Full Page