Arizona residents rise against data centers even though chipmaker TSMC was welcomed
Residents of the US state of Arizona are broadly opposing new hyperscale data centers over their demands for water, power and land. Meanwhile, the Phoenix operation of chipmaker TSMC has faced no significant opposition.
In the US state of Arizona, where water has been scarce since the state's founding, resistance is growing to proposed hyperscale (very large) data centers. The opposition stretches from Phoenix to Tucson and is led by a grassroots coalition of residents that The Verge describes as surprisingly bipartisan. By contrast, the Arizona operation of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), the world's leading chipmaker, was welcomed with open arms.
The TSMC success story
TSMC's Phoenix complex uses nearly 5 million gallons of water a day from the city's municipal supply. The company announced its Arizona plans in 2020, initially pledging to invest $12 billion by 2029. Its projected spending in the state has since grown to $265 billion, which the company describes as the largest foreign direct investment in US history. A second fab (chip factory) has been completed, a third is under construction and several more are planned. The company has brought more than 3,500 jobs to the state.
Christine Mackay, head of Phoenix's economic development office, says the city spent years courting the company. TSMC began looking for a US site in 2016, and in 2019 Phoenix presented a plan for a science and technology park.
Data centers meet resistance
Arizona hosts 172 data centers, most of which drew little attention. The newly proposed ones are far larger and are often planned for rural farmland or desert. Residents worry about water, power and land use, as well as the loss of wildlife habitat and dark-sky areas. The concern comes as the state is about to lose access to nearly 30 percent of the water it receives from the Colorado River.
On the outskirts of Tucson, the No Desert Data Center Coalition is protesting a 600-megawatt data center that Beale Infrastructure is building on a 290-acre site, known as Project Blue. The project promised 3,000 temporary construction jobs, 200 well-paid permanent positions and $152 million in tax revenue over a decade. Despite the opposition, construction is continuing.
