Inside the long, bitter fight over one man’s quest to build the biggest AI datacenter in California
Source:
guardianTech
October 17, 2026 · 06:00
From the publisher
A modern-day prospector promised rural Imperial thousands of jobs and millions in tax revenue – but his plan has set off a firestorm of resistanceSebastian Rucci zoomed in on a map in late 2024, looking closely at a large block of brown earth. The barren plot sandwiched between sprawling alfalfa fields and sleepy desert suburbs was exactly what he’d been searching for – the perfect place to realize his dream of building the largest artificial intelligence datacenter in California.The dusty expanse wasn’t an obvious location. It was in the Sonoran desert, just north of the Mexican border, where temperatures regularly rose past 100F (37.8C). Water was scarce in the once-booming agricultural area, which gets its supply from the beleaguered Colorado River. And then, there was the city of Imper…
About Mexico
More from Mexico →
Capital
Mexico City
Region
Latin America & Caribbean
Income level
Upper middle income
ISO code
MEX
Data:
World Bank
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