A modern-day prospector promised rural Imperial thousands of jobs and millions in tax revenue \u2013 but his plan has set off a firestorm of resistance<\/p>\n
Sebastian 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\u2019d been searching for \u2013 the perfect place to realize his dream of building the largest artificial intelligence datacenter in California.<\/p>\n
The dusty expanse wasn\u2019t 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 Imperial \u2013 population 22,000 \u2013 to win over. As controversial datacenter projects have sprung up across the US, residents were naturally skeptical of a new, energy-guzzling neighbor.<\/p>\n
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