Turning abandoned factories into data centers

Added: 2026-06-03

[00:00:00]abandoned factories seem to be finding new life in the age of artificial intelligence. We are seeing shells of the industrial past now being used by data centers. Building one from scratch can take years, require significant resources, and come with some backlash from nearby communities. So, some companies are skipping that step, retrofitting old factories instead.

[00:00:23]>> We showed them that we're using much less water than the existing facility.

[00:00:27]the noise coming out of the facility is dramatically less than it was when it was a textile factory. We're showing how many jobs were done. So for us, the retrofit approach really solves a lot of the community resistance that normally pops up when you're starting from from scratch.

[00:00:45]>> That developer says there are dozens of more sites like that one across the country, all waiting to be claimed for new use as data centers. Meanwhile, leaders here in Georgia are getting ahead of the data center debate. The Columbus Chamber of Commerce has released a deeper dive into concerns that the community has raised in response to possible data centers coming to the area. Issues like water, infrastructure, and noise. They say it sets the minimums that companies will have to address to even get to the table, like designing in noise reduction measures before construction even starts.