I run MPP Insights, a data engineering and analytics firm headquartered here in Richmond, Virginia - and I am a proud Hanover County resident of over five years.
I’ll be honest: I’ve been hesitant to publicly share my thoughts on the proposed data center. But after the Planning Commission’s 8-1 vote to recommend approval, the community deserves to hear from someone who actually works with this data technology for a living.
This deal looks like it will be fantastic for Hanover (on paper).
HOWEVER, I am strongly opposed to building new data centers in the Richmond region - especially this one.
HOWEVER, I am strongly opposed to building new data centers in the Richmond region - especially this one.
My team here at MPP Insights uses data infrastructure daily. We help hospitals, financial institutions, and government agencies use data to improve people’s lives. Think about calling customer service and not having to repeat your name and address five times - that’s the data working for you. Our clients use data centers to host these systems and train AI models. I believe in the outcomes it can have.
I want to be clear up front: I am not anti-data center. I’ve written about data infrastructure investments in Benzinga a few times, most recently when Vice President JD Vance visited Armenia that yielded $9 billion in deals, a $500 million AI factory, and a civil nuclear cooperation agreement built specifically to power it all. I called it "data diplomacy at its finest." I meant every word of it.
But here's the thing about Armenia: that infrastructure was purpose-built for a developing economy trying to propel itself into the digital age. The data centers are not sitting next to residential neighborhoods. The water infrastructure was designed around them from day one. They're powered by nuclear energy - not a residential power grid already straining under demand.
The concerns Hanover residents have raised about water, electricity, and community impact? Armenia cracked it before they approved it. Hanover County did not.
$900 million in tax revenue over 20 years, 1,000 construction jobs, investments in local water infrastructure - it looks appealing to commissioners and planners. But they’re misleading you.
Here’s the complete picture:
1. Data Centers Do NOT create Jobs
Construction jobs are temporary and specialists that are brought from other places - this does NOT support the local economy in a sustainable way. These aren't local electricians and contractors. Large-scale data center construction requires highly specialized crews that travel from project to project across the country. They come in, they build, they leave. No real economic impact for Hanover county.
At maximum, data centers employ 20-30 employees per location - which is nothing for economic development and local jobs.
Here’s the kicker - even for the local jobs, they aren't hiring locally! They're typically bringing the highly paid employees with them. Data center operators maintain a core technical workforce and move them from facility to facility. This raises housing and rent costs for all of you.
When high-earning transplants move into a market already experiencing a housing shortage, everyone already here gets priced out. We've watched this happen in Northern Virginia, Austin, and Boise. It's a documented pattern.
2. You Are Trading 427 Acres of Hanover’s future for a Data Center
Projections show in the next 15 years, the population of the greater Richmond region will DOUBLE to nearly 3 million people. We already have a housing shortage, and stealing 427 acres takes away the future homes of nearly 5,000 people. That's families, neighbors, people who would shop locally, send kids to Hanover schools, and build this community.
Once this data center goes in, the land is gone forever and it will be too expensive to make the area habitable again. This is the part nobody is telling you: data center facilities cannot be repurposed. The electrical infrastructure alone - substations, fiber conduits, cooling systems built into the ground - makes remediation costs IMPOSSIBLE. It will never be a housing development or a park.
It will be a data center, or an abandoned industrial site.
We are making a 100-year land decision based on a 20-year revenue projection from a developer who has a financial interest in the Board approving it.
3. AI Bubble And It Will Pop
Look into circular financing for AI - the AI industry is running on circular financing that should raise serious alarm bells. Amazon just invested $50 billion into OpenAI in February 2026. OpenAI has invested in NVIDIA. NVIDIA's value depends on OpenAI buying chips. These companies are inflating each other's valuations... and when this corrects, it'll be worse than 2008's financial crisis.
This isn't speculation — analysts are openly calling it circular financing. The real-world enterprise and consumer revenue that would justify these valuations simply hasn't materialized at the scale these balance sheets require. When demand collapses, the hyperscale buildout stops overnight.
What is left in Hanover County when that happens? An abandoned industrial facility on 427 acres, expensive to demolish, environmentally burdened, and worth a fraction of what was projected.
We'd be betting Hanover's land on the AI bubble not popping. I wouldn't take that bet.
4. You hate how much your dominion bill was this winter? It’ll double again if this happens.
Data centers are predatory and we're subsidizing the profits of large tech companies on our monthly utility bills. Virginia’s data center boom is one of the primary drivers behind the rate increases already showing up on residential utility bills. Data centers are among the most energy-intensive facilities on the planet. When this facility comes online, the grid infrastructure required to serve it must be expanded - and that cost is distributed across every residential ratepayer in the region.
Don’t believe me? Check your electricity bill.
We are subsidizing the operating margins of trillion-dollar technology companies through our monthly utility bills. That is not a community benefit, it’s a burden to everyone.
The Board of Supervisors makes the final call. Before that vote happens, Hanover County deserves an independent fiscal and environmental analysis — not just the developer’s pitch deck. I am asking the Board to commission that analysis before any final decision is made.
