Why does Oregon have so many data centers? And why do we need more?

Photo Credit: Oregon Rural Action

Community members from Umatilla & Morrow Counties participating in a Data Center Rally in Salem, Ore.

Tech companies have built gigantic data centers in Oregon for over 20 years. Now, even the rumor of a new data center coming to a community leads to packed city council meetings, rallies against their construction and calls for moratoriums on new ones.

They have suddenly become the hot-button issue at every level of politics.

Every time someone streams a TV show on their laptop or searches for ice cream stores near them from their phone, they're accessing information stored in a server housed in a data center.

There are 144 data centers in Oregon either in operation or some level of planning, according to an ECOnorthwest presentation.

The increased use of generative artificial intelligence, which uses large amounts of data to create content, has led to the massive surge in data center construction, according to an Oregon State University report.