‘Nobody’s negotiating for the people here’: comedian Charlie Berens takes on AI datacenters

Key points

• Last summer, journalist turned comedian Charlie Berens started getting social media messages from concerned Wisconsin residents about plans for a massive datacenter campus in their state.
• The developer, Vantage Data Centers, claimed the $8bn project would largely run on zero-emission energy resources like solar, wind and battery storage.
• The company said the campus would bring thousands of temporary construction jobs and potentially more than 1,000 permanent jobs to Port Washington, a city of 13,000 people about a half-hour north of Milwaukee.
• Residents opposed the project for what they said was lack of transparency and criticized the lucrative tax incentives offered to Vantage.
• They worried about the strain on local water and energy sources from an enormous 1.3-gigawatt project that could ultimately span 1,900 acres.