United States data center construction accelerates under Trump policies

The United States built data centers at a very fast rate between 2017 and 2021. During the Trump administration, large-scale data center capacity grew by more than 40 percent. Companies like Amazon, Microsoft, Google, and Facebook all expanded their facilities. Investors put over 100 billion dollars into new construction during this period. A 2017 tax law and changes to government rules made it easier and faster to get building approval. By the end of this period, around 3,000 data centers were already running, and more than 1,500 others were being built. Data centers are essential because they power cloud computing and artificial intelligence services. However, the rapid growth raised concerns about how much water and energy these buildings use.