Small towns see economic boost from data center development rush
FOX Business’ Ashley Webster reports on ‘enormous’ data centers sprouting up across the U.S. at rapid rates, creating jobs but also detractors on ‘Making Money.’
It’s a digital gold rush as data center development sweeps through small-town America.
As demand for artificial intelligence, cloud computing and digital storage surges, developers are racing to secure land, power and water.
That growth is becoming increasingly concentrated. Nearly 1% of U.S. counties, roughly 33, now account for 72% of all data-center activity as of July 2025, according to a recent Goldman Sachs analysis. But the map is changing almost daily.
One Georgia community is experiencing that shift in real time.
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Newton County, about an hour east of Atlanta, is one of four counties that host Meta’s Stanton Springs campus.
FOX Business was granted an exclusive look inside the site, which opened in 2018 and has continued to expand with a second campus now under construction. The 1,000-acre site houses eight massive buildings, each roughly the length of four football fields, packed with rows of high-speed servers humming 24/7.
The cable network is long enough to reach the moon and back. And it’s where data for Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Meta’s other platforms is processed and pushed at record speeds.
Technology inside Meta’s Stanton Springs Data Center in Social Circle, GA. (FOX Business Network / Fox News)
It’s just one of 26 data centers currently under construction or already in production in the U.S., with even more growth on the horizon.
“I’ve been in the industry for over 20 years, and I’ve never seen this level of focus on data centers,” KC Timmons, director of SiteOps Global Operations at Meta, told FOX Business. “It’s innovative. There’s so much good that we can do.”
Meta’s arrival was largely welcomed, and its investment has become a major economic anchor for the region, creating hundreds of jobs, supporting local contractors and generating long-term tax revenue for schools and public services. The company now employs roughly 400 people in HVAC, electrical, operations and technical roles, most of them hired from the surrounding community.
| Ticker | Security | Last | Change | Change % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| META | META PLATFORMS INC. | 673.42 | +11.89 | +1.80% |
But Meta’s presence now sits alongside the explosive growth the county has experienced just this year. And not everyone is thrilled about it.
“It’s all pie in the sky,” Newton County Commissioner LeAnne Long told FOX Business. “It’s not what they say it is. These big developers come in with lucrative promises like zoning, water, electricity. It is the biggest smoke-and-mirror thing you’ve ever seen.”
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Long, also a real estate broker in the region, questions what happens years from now if the industry’s footprint shifts and the massive…
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