For more than a decade, Ohio has made sweeping investments into data centers and now ranks fifth in the nation with more than 200 across the state. Most are concentrated in Columbus, with about 20 located in Cleveland.
More recently, generative AI such as ChatGPT has forced communities to reckon with the environmental and health impacts of building these centers. People have reported strains on utilities such as water and electricity, and linked to health issues such as cancer and even miscarriages.
Data centers are unlikely to dominate Cleveland, according to Dean Jackson, a freelance writer and tech researcher. He recently wrote an article about the political consequences on AI investments, specifically public money that’s being left on the table during negotiations between these corporations and local governments.
Upbeat Nonsense sat down with Jackson to better understand the state of play in Ohio. He also recently launched his own newsletter, Unreal Birds, where he covers the intersection of tech, policy and accountability. He is also a contributing editor for Tech Policy Press.
Read Dean’s article here.
Photo provided by Dean Jackson, edited by Dakotah Kennedy.
Let’s start at the beginning. What is a data center and how does it work?
A data center can be anything from a room in a building or even a closet with a few computers. But with generative AI – which is different from AI generally – there’s been a need for much, much more computing power. And to do things at that scale, you need a lot of very advanced chips, which means bigger buildings. It’s a physical infrastructure story about the internet, which we don’t think of as being a physical thing.
Beyond data centers being a trendy – and urgent – topic, why did you decide to write about them in Ohio?
I used to follow social media policy a lot more closely as kind of a “software guy.” I really wanted to do something local that was tangible in a way that social media policy often isn’t. To me, this is an economic justice story about what we’re being asked to sacrifice for the advancement of artificial intelligence.
The question I was most interested in – because I feel like the reporting on water use has been heavily covered – was the tax issue. What really surprised me was the number of economic development officials who told me that data center projects are the opposite of every economic development project they’ve ever worked on. For example, governments could be asking for more money instead of offering 100% tax cuts for thirty years.
Whether or not there is really a fair deal here for communities, we’re being asked to host these centers. And the tech industry will tell you that there is a “big opportunity” to join the 21st century economy. To me, we should be asking, “What is your vision for that economy and is it one we’re interested in?”
How does Ohio fit in or stand out in terms of what’s happening nationally?
Ohio has a few advantages if you’re someone who wants to build a lot of data centers. We have access to fresh water, and these centers use a lot of water to cool those computer chips. Think about how warm your laptop gets and imagine a building full of very powerful laptops getting hot. You have to cool them somehow, or they’ll melt.
And then we also have a pretty generous tax abatement system. A lot of the researchers I talked to said that tax abatements are kind of a “dark expenditure.” If the government budgets money for something, it has to be public. If there is an abatement, the money is forfeited and it doesn’t get reported in the same way.
For example, one city approved a 100% 30-year tax abatement for an Amazon data center. It’s estimated to be worth $180 to $350 million, but the city will only collect $50 million over 15 years. At the end of the day, that money could have gone to social services. When it’s property taxes, that’s school funding, really, that you’re giving away to companies like Amazon.
(Note: Abatements in Franklin County alone in 2024 resulted in $205 million in lost tax revenue, with the Franklin County Auditor projecting that $130 million would have been set aside for schools, $11.4 million for children’s services, $8.8 million for libraries and $3.4 million for senior services.)
I’ve seen that some communities have passed moratoriums or at least convinced local governments to pause data center development. Is that happening in Ohio?
Moratoriums are picking up steam. At the end of 2025 going into 2026, I think you’ll start to see more developments canceled nationwide and in Ohio. More and more people are showing up to public meetings, because they are concerned about the environmental consequences.
What are you paying attention to as the conversation continues?
One thing I’m going to be watching this year is whether or not this becomes an issue in the gubernatorial race. You have, you know, people in rural areas, people in suburban areas, people of different genders and economic class and races, all kind of talking about this issue.
It was really noteworthy that the state legislature passed a budget that would have ended state tax abatements for data centers, but Governor Mike DeWine vetoed it. The utilities companies and tech companies can influence the state government in ways that benefit their interests.
Vivek Ramaswamy comes from a tech background and was briefly affiliated with DOGE. That opens something up for Democrats to talk about. And so it could end up being a really interesting and unorthodox part of the gubernatorial campaign.
This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.