Yonder Radio’s first-ever special report is called Power Dynamics: The Rural Data Center Boom. We’re digging into how different kinds of power – from literal computing power to political and economic power – shape data center development in rural America.

Two-thirds of new data centers are going to be built in rural places, according to the Pew Research Center. That puts rural communities at the forefront of a nationwide scramble to build the physical infrastructure powering AI. Still, as the U.S. economy embraces AI, rural America has yet to feel the technology’s economic windfall.

Instead, many communities are grappling with competing visions for the future of their land, water, and energy resources, as data centers crop up to supply growing AI demand. Over the past year, the Daily Yonder has reported on the rural data center rush in nearly every region. What has emerged is a story not only of what gets built, and where, but also of who gets to decide.